BIOGRAPHY 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 



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BIOGRAPHY OF 

SENATOR ALFRED BEARD KITTREDCE 

HIS COMPLETE LIFE WORK 



BY 



0. W. COURSEY 

AUTHOR OF 

"The Woman With A Stone Heart' 

"The Philippines and Filipinos" 

"Biography of General Beadle" 

"Who's Who in South Dakota" 

"School Law Digest" 



These books are all published and are for sale by 

THE EDUCATOR SUPPLY COMPANY 
Mitchell, South Dakota 



UZC2 



COPYRIGHTED 

1915 

BY O. W. COURSEY 



JUN 141915 
U.A401396 



sfl 



1 



A. B. K1TTREDGE 



DEDICATION. 

With intense pleasure and abiding good- 
will, the Author hereby dedicates this book to 
a man whose friendship for Alfred Beard 
Kittredge never wavered — the man who first 
appointed him United States Senator — Hon- 
oraole Charles N. Herreid, of Aberdeen, ex- 
governor of South Dakota. 

— 0. W. Course y 



PREFACE. 

Those who have read in various news- 
papers and magazines during the past few 
years some of the articles that have appeared 
from my pen, as well as having read one or 
more of my former books, must be impressed 
with one Herculean fact, to-wit : that I prefer 
to write of the Living rather than of the 
Dead. However, in writing the Biography 
of Senator Kittredge, I have written of one 
who has crossed the Dark River; therefore, 
I approached the task with mingled feelings 
of sadness and reverence ; for, to me, he was 
almost a father — a foster parent, so to speak : 
I idolized him. 

Mr. Abel, in his speech (See Chapter 
VII.), says: "All the history of any state or 
nation that is really worth while is the biog- 
raphy of its great men." This is true. The his- 
tory of every country is largely the history of 
the leading men and women who have made 
it. Natural causes such as volcanoes, earth- 



quakes, tornadoes and floods, do their part; 
the rest is the record of individual achieve- 
ments. Just so with A. B. Kittredge : his 
biography and the history of our state for 
twenty-five years, are one and inseparable. 

Realizing full well, because I was writ- 
ing the life of an active politician, that I was 
writing both political and civil history, and 
that, therefore, this book, when done, would 
have to run the newspaper gauntlet and stand 
the acid test of public criticism, I struggled 
hard to overcome my own political preju- 
dices, so as to be entirely fair with everyone ; 
and, from an historical standpoint, to be ab- 
solutely accurate. 

After completing the manuscript, I sub- 
mitted it for review to several substantial 
men of the state, and I earnestly requested 
each of them to be as cruel as possible in their 
criticisms of it. The book has, therefore, in 
its present form, successfully withstood the 
"attacks" of several competent minds. 

The preparation of this biography has 
been a reverential duty — a pleasant task ; and 
I now hand it over to the public in the hope 
that it may be given a cordial reception. 

—THE AUTHOR. 



CONTENTS 

Page 
Chapter I. 

ALFRED BEARD KITTREDGE: 

Introductory 11 

Ancestry 14 

Early Years 24 

Education 27 

Chapter II. 

PROFESSIONAL CAREER: 

Lawyer 29 

Before the Circuit Court 38 

Before the Supreme Court 41 

As Opposing: Counsel 43 

Chapter III. 

KITTREDGE, THE POLITICIAN: 

Political Leadership 47 

His Reticence 48 

Chairman of Committees 52 

Chapter IV. 

UNITED STATES SENATOR: 

Appointed Senator 57 

The Panama Canal 67 

Judiciary Committee 70 

Lumber Trust 71 

Other Achievements 84 

Decoration Day Speech 86 

Patronage Episode ■. 92 



Chapter V. 

UNDOING OF KITTREDGE: 

His Defeat 10 3 

Re-enters Private Practice 115 

Chapter VI. 

SUMMONED BEFORE HIGHER COURT: 

Death and Burial 119 

Eulogized 12" 

Resolutions of Bar Association 152 

Chapter VII. 

PERMANENTLY HONORED: 

His Marble Bust 157 

Speech of E. L. Abel 160 

Memorial Comments .... 170 

Addresses of: 

Dick Haney 177 

John T. Kean 185 

Chas. M. Day 197 

Bust Unveiled 206 

Oil Paintings 2 °8 

Other Honors 209 

Chapter VIII. 

ADDITIONAL TRIBUTES BY: 

President Taft 213 

Senator Coe I. Crawford 214 

Hon. C. H. Lugg 216 

Dr. G. W. Nash 217 

Hon. M. M. Ramer 217 

Hon. Doane Robinson 218 

Gen. Geo. A. Silsby 219 

Judge Joe Parmley 221 

Colonel Lee Stover 223 

Dead Eulogizes the Dead 223 



CHAPTER I. 

ALFRED BEARD KITTREDGE 

INTRODUCTION. ANCESTRY. EARLY YEARS. 
EDUCATION. 




Senator Alfred Beard Kittredge 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 11 



INTRODUCTORY. 

God summoned him ; he responded : 
Senator Alfred Beard Kittredge is dead! — 
dead, but not forgotten — dead yet liveth ; died 
only to begin life over again in a new realm 
of existence. That tiny spark, the human 
soul — an atom from the anvil of God's great 
flaming Forge of Life, quite as indestructible 
as the Master Smithy . who gave it — was 
seized from him by the Messenger of Death 
in a hospital in Hot Springs, Arkansas, on 
May 4th, 1911, and carried to 

"The undiscovered country, from whose bourne 
No traveler returns." 

His was not the accustomed "three score 
years and ten ;" rather, his was but two score 
years and ten : his was the natural lot of ab- 
normally-developed physical man. He had 
a wonderful physique: his waist band was 
over seventy inches ; his height, medium ; and 
he weighed approximately three hundred 



12 BIOGRAPHY OF 

pounds. Nature set her seal of disapproval 
upon this class of men as well as upon those 
who are abnormally tall and lean, and fixed 
their earthly existence at fifty-five years. Sel- 
dom does one of them surpass this limit, 
while many of them never reach it ; in fact, 
a large per cent of them die under forty-nine. 
Senator Kittredge was fifty years, one 
month and six days of age at the time of his 
death. His demise was, therefore, the nat- 
ural lot of his type of mankind, and not the 
result of disappointment over his defeat for 
re-nomination by the republican party for 
election to the United States senate, as some 
have been led to believe. Had he been re- 
turned to the senate, he would no doubt have 
died sooner than he did, for official life at 
Washington is strenuous at best; besides, as 
a public official, he was a tremendous worker. 
On the other hand, after returning to his 
private law practice, he relaxed greatly and 
took better care of himself, although his 
practice was large and was worth to him, in 
dollars and cents, twice what his senatorial 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 13 



position was. He never brooded for a mo- 
ment over his defeat, but invariably assured 
his numerous friends that he was glad and 
felt relieved to be retired to private life where 
he could again take up his chosen profession. 



14 BIOGRAPHY OF 



ANCESTRY. 

Senator Kittredge's greatest asset in life 
was the fact that he was born well. His gen- 
earchs, extending back through numerous 
generations among the New England colo- 
nists, and on back into Old England itself as 
far as 1590, constitute a family tree that is 
rather remarkable, and they form the basis 
for just such a man as A. B. Kittredge proved 
to be. 

After much pleasant anxiety to myself 
and varying trouble to others, I have been 
enabled to trace his lineal ancestry, on his 
mother's side, with unbroken accuracy, from 
Nicholas Clapp, of England, who was born 
in 1612, migrated to America and died at 
Dorchester, Massachusetts, November 24, 
1679, down to Laura Frances Holmes, his 
own mother; and on his father's side, with 
equal accuracy from Dr. John Kittredge, who 
was born in England in 1620, and migrated to 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 15 

America in 1660, down through the succeed- 
ing generations to Russell Herbert Kittredge, 
his own father who was born October 25, 
1835, and who, at the date of this writing, 
is still alive, although eighty years of age. 

On the mother's side are many of the 
most prominent families of New England, in- 
cluding the Livermores and the Shermans. 
On the father's side is even a greater strain 
of prominent blood. Indeed, this goes back 
to Old England itself, where the Kittredges 
of London, in 1593, for meritorious achieve- 
ment and high station in life, were granted 
a Coat of Arms by the Crown. The legend 
describing it calls for a Sable Shield with 
a Lion d'or Rampant (a black shield with a 
rearing gold lion in the center) . The crest is 
a mural coronet over which rests a gold lion's 
head in profile (facing the left). On the 
streamer beneath the shield appears this Lat- 
in motto : 

"Ne Pars Sincera Trahetur" 

A loose translation of it is : "Let naught that 
is good be lost." This Coat of Arms is still 



16 BIOGRAPHY OF 

in the possession of the Kittredge family, and 
it is prized very highly by them. (See repro- 
duction of it herewith). 

One of the most prominent characters in 
American Colonial history is the first one of 
the Senator's ancestors who migrated to this 
country, Dr. John Kittredge, of Billerica, 
Massachusetts. He was born in England in 
1620 ; came to America in 1660 and settled in 
Massachusetts. He was married November 
2, 1664 ; fought in King Philip's War in De- 
cember, 1675, and died October 18, 1676. 

The old historic files of the famous 
"Towne Meetings" that were held in the early 
days in Massachusetts, show that when Bil- 
lerica was being expanded and a new town- 
ship was being formed, a small tract of land 
was granted to this same "John Kittredge, 
near Mr. Knowle's, south of Bare Hill;" and 
in December, 1665, when trouble arose be- 
tween the settlers on these small tracts with 
regard to the boundary lines, etc., and a pub- 
lic town meeting was called and a committee 
was appointed to investigate and report upon 




KETERIDGE (London; granted 1593) 

Sable a lion rampant or. Crest: out 
of a mural coronet, a lion's head or. 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 17 

these family quarrels, that they, in their re- 
port, state: "John Kittredge has one-third 
part of five acres, adjoining to the South side 
of his house-lot, and he is content." 

Again, one month later, in January, 1666, 
the records show that "The great meadow 
North-East of Prospect Hill" (near Cam- 
bridge) was divided into forty-two lots, 
among as many different persons, and that 
Lot No. 24 was drawn by John Kittredge. 

It is indeed interesting to note in the old 
"Towne Records" that a resolution passed at 
a public meeting of the citizens on May 2, 
1660, "accepts as inhabitants the brothers 
* * * John Kittredge and Roger Toothaker." 
(This must have been immediately after he 
landed.) 

Equally interesting is another entry un- 
der date of December 27, 1664, which shows 
Will Sheldon, James Paterson, and John Kit- 
tredge, each fined two shillings for "defect in 
trayninge" (meaning drainage). 

On June 13, 1675, when King Philip's 
War was brewing, a sweeping set of resolu- 



18 BIOGRAPHY OF 



tions were passed "At a publick Towne Meet- 
ing in Billericey," pledging volunteers to de- 
fend the town. Two days later, "At a meet- 
ing of ye Selectmen and Committee of Mili- 
tia," houses were designated for garrison 
posts etc. Soldiers were assigned to duty in 
accordance with Resolution No. 2 as follows : 
"For the South end of the towne Sergeant 
Foster's house is appointed, and so to take to 
it his son, Joseph Foster, James Frost, Joseph 
French, Joseph Walker, Daniel Rogers, John 
Kittredge, Thomas Richardson and two sol- 
diers." 

These miscellaneous accounts of Dr. 
John Kittredge, although a trifle foreign to 
the subject being treated, are given to show 
that the first Kittredge to land on American 
soil was an active fellow, strong blooded, 
fearless, and a leader among the Massachu- 
setts colonists. 

His son, Dr. John Kittredge, Jr., was 
also prominent in the early wars of the col- 
onists. In the archives of Boston is an old 
Militia Roll bearing this heading: "The 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 19 

Names of the Men that went the Rouns with 
Mager Lane" (meaning "the rounds with 
Major Lane"). This latter Kittredge's name 
appears on this roll. 

Reverend Henry Hazen, in his "History 
of Billerica," (Page 140) says : "These names 
of men who were ready to meet the hardships 
and dangers of this Indian warfare, in de- 
fence of their imperilled homes, are as worthy 
of honored remembrance from a grateful pos- 
terity as those which we carefully record and 
tenderly cherish, in the wars of the Revolu- 
tion and the Rebellion." 

Another ancestor, Jonathan Kittredge, 
distinguished himself in the hard-fought In- 
dian Battle at Lovewell's Pond, Wakefield, 
Massachusetts, April 15, 1725, in which he, 
Captain Lovewell, Chaplain Frye and over a 
third of their command were killed. 

Into the life of James Kittredge, another 
of the Massachusetts' pioneers, came one of 
those heart-rending, deplorable incidents that 
make life sad at best. An old issue of "The 
New England Weekly Journal," published 



20 BIOGRAPHY OF 



October 13, 1729, (three years before George 
Washington was born), contains the follow- 
ing account of the misfortune (Herein I use 
the paper's own phraseology, punctuation 
and spelling.) : "We have received the fol- 
lowing melancholy relation from Billerica. 
That on the Lord's day, the fifth instant, a 
house was burnt there, wherein were two 
small children, who were both consumed in 
the flames. It seems the heads of the family 
were gone to publick worship, and left at 
home, three children, the eldest a girl of 
about twelve years old, who had the care of 
the others ; but she, going a little ways from 
the house, to drive some swine that had got- 
ten into the corn ; in the meantime the house 
took fire and burnt so vehemently, that when 
she came to it, she could not get into it, or do 
anything to save the other poor children." 

Once more, the Revolutionary War rec- 
ords reveal the names of the following Kit- 
tredges from Billerica, who took part in it: 
Daniel 3, Jonathan 6, Nathaniel 3, and Ser- 
geant William Kittredge — all ancestors of the 
late A. B. Kittredge. 




His Father 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 21 

This brings us down to a brief discussion 
of his immediate ancestors. His great-grand- 
father, Joshua Kittredge (son of Anne and 
Thomas Kittredge) was born in Billerica, 
Massachusetts, 1760-1. Before the Revolu- 
tion he migrated to Mt. Vernon, New Hamp- 
shire, the home of Solomon Kittredge who 
was a distant cousin. 

He joined the Revolutionary forces with 
a company of volunteers mustered in at Lyn- 
deborough, in 1777, although he was but a 
lad seventeen years of age at the time. After 
the war, he settled at Nelson, New Hamp- 
shire, where he married his cousin, Lydia 
Kittredge. She died; and he then married 
Beulah Baker, of Mt. Vernon, New Hamp- 
shire. He and she became the direct ances- 
tors of the present-day Kittredges. Joshua 
died in 1833. He and his second wife, Beu- 
lah, lie buried side-by-side at Nelson. 

Their son, Herbert (1800—1835), mar- 
ried Sarah Livermore, in 1828, and these two 
people became the grand-parents of Senator 
Kittredge, on his father's side. On his moth- 



22 BIOGRAPHY OF 

er's side, his grand-parents were Henry 
Holmes and Laura Beard. 

Russell Herbert Kittredge, a son of Her- 
bert Kittredge and Sarah Livermore, married 
Laura Frances Holmes, a daughter of Henry 
Holmes and Laura Beard ; and these two peo- 
ple became the father and mother of Alfred 
Beard Kittredge, United States senator from 
South Dakota. 

These scattered facts, culled from re- 
cords that are mildewed with age, have been 
introduced herein merely to give a substan- 
tial back-ground to the Life and Works of 
our distinguished Senator, and to prove that 
in his veins flowed blood that had been tried 
and not found wanting. The Kittredges rep- 
resented all walks in life, but they seem to 
have excelled in medicine. Dr. John Kit- 
tredge, the first one of the family to immi- 
grate to America, was an M. D. His son, John, 
was a doctor; and his grandson, John, was 
not only a doctor but he was the father of 
eight sons — all of whom became physicians. 
One of these sons, Benjamin, became the 




His Mother 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 23 

father of Doctor Jacob Kittredge (1781) who 
practiced medicine in Massachusetts during 
Thomas Jefferson's and James Madison's ad- 
ministrations. In 1815, he removed to Galli- 
polis, Ohio, where he continued his practice 
until he died October 22, 1824. Alfred Beard 
Kittredge, who migrated to Dakota in 1885 
and took up the practice of lav/ at Sioux Falls, 
seems to have been the first Kittredge to 
enter the legal profession. Since his death, 
his large practice has been carried on by his 
nephew, Russell D. Kittredge, son of H. W. 
Kittredge, of Westfield, Massachusetts. 



24 BIOGRAPHY OF 



HIS EARLY YEARS. 

Senator Kittredge was born March 28, 
1861, in the village of Nelson, Cheshire coun- 
ty, New Hampshire. The account of the Sen- 
ator's early years was beautifully told by 
Judge Dick Haney, of the South Dakota su- 
preme court, in his eulogy of him at the un- 
veiling of the Senator's marble bust in the 
State Capitol, at Pierre, on January 15, 1913. 
He said in part: 

"The man whose memory we have met to 
honor was born on a farm among the hills 
of New Hampshire, when God was 'trampling 
out the vintage where the grapes of wrath 
are stored' ; when the hearts of the men and 
women of New England were aglow with the 
love of liberty ; when patriotism was the rul- 
ing passion in northern homes; when the 
flower of American manhood was being pre- 
pared for that 'full measure of devotion' re- 
quired to preserve the Union; when gentle- 




His Birth Place 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 25 



women, going down into the very shadows of 
death, that future defenders of the flag might 
exist, were imbuing their children with the 
most exalted aspirations and impulses. 

"Fourteen years, doubtless the most hap- 
py of Mr. Kittredge's life, were spent on a 
farm in a typical New England home, free 
alike from the privations of poverty and the 
enervating influences of wealth, where he ac- 
quired the habits of industry and conceptions 
of moral rectitude which characterized his 
conduct throughout his entire career. 

"During the years of his boyhood he 
performed his part of the daily toil incident 
to life on the farm ; engaged in the invigorat- 
ing sports of northern winters; enjoyed the 
pleasures of glorious summers and splendid 
autumns ; learned to love the sound of rip- 
pling waters, the songs of birds, the infinite, 
exquisite music of nature. During those 
years he learned the teachings of the stars ; 
learned to appreciate the beauty of moun- 
tains, rivers, forests and flowers ; learned the 
precepts of his mother's religion ; learned the 



26 BIOGRAPHY OF 

lessons of life as they are taught in the farm 
homes of good old New England — homes 
whence have emanated in large degree the 
intellectual and moral forces which have pre- 
served the better social and political institu- 
tions of our great republic — whence have 
come the men, who, in large degree, have con- 
tributed to the marvelous, material progress 
and prosperity of the entire country and 
caused its flag to be respected 'in every land 
and on every sea under the whole Heavens/ 
"I know not what hopes, ambitions, as- 
pirations, dreams, stirred the heart and brain 
of the reticent country lad as he followed the 
plow, played by the brook or wandered in the 
woods : I know not the language of his moth- 
er's prayers ; but I do know that the promise 
of his youth was fulfilled in far larger meas- 
ure than is usual even in this land of oppor- 
tunities." 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 27 



EDUCATION 

His early education was acquired in the 
rural schools of his native state. A private 
tutor then prepared him for Yale which he 
entered successfully in June, 1878, and grad- 
uated from the Academic department with 
the class of 1882. He then entered the law 
office of Judge Veasey, at Rutland, Vermont, 
and took up the study of law. At the end of 
a year, he changed over to the law offices of 
Bachelder and Faulkner, of Keene, New 
Hampshire, and continued his studies with 
them. Finally, in 1884, he entered the Law 
department of Yale and finished his course 
with the class of 1885. 

Immediately thereafter, he was admitted 
to the Connecticut bar, upon examination be- 
fore the supreme court of that state. 



CHAPTER II. 

PROFESSIONAL CAREER 

LAWYER. BEFORE THE CIRCUIT COURT. BEFORE 
THE SUPREME COURT. AS OPPOSING COUNSEL. 




At Twenty-Four 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 29 



LAWYER. 

He was now twenty-four years of age. 
Life with all its splendid possibilities and op- 
portunities lay before him. He had prepared 
himself for a lawyer. "Where should he prac- 
tice?" This question was soon settled by the 
dictates of his own judgment. He would "Go 
West, young man, and grow up with the 
country." And, why not? The opportuni- 
ties in the field of law for a young fellow just 
out of Yale — particularly a quarter of a cen- 
tury ago — were not the best. True ; he might 
have gotten in with some old law firm and 
played "second fiddle" for ten or fifteen 
years, waiting for some senior member of 
the firm to die, so as to give him a chance; 
but he was too independent and too aggres- 
sive for that. 

There are only two classes of people in 
the world any way, — those who lead and 
those who are led — those who control their 



30 BIOGRAPHY OF 

circumstances and those who are controlled 
by them. Young Kittredge belonged decid- 
edly to the former class. Nature had en- 
dowed him with an unusually strong intellect 
housed in a rugged farm-boy body, and had 
prepared him for leadership. 

So he at once struck out for Sioux Falls, 
Dakota Territory, which at that time, was 
comparatively a small western village ; rent- 
ed a small office, put up his sign 

CVTi VfA ."I'TKVTl Wr/i\VA^7t\'lrA\"V7K 

A. B. KITTREDGE I 
ATTORNEY AT LAW | 

and was ready for clients. They soon came 
thick and fast. The first man told his friends 
how carefully A. B. Kittredge had looked af- 
ter the details of his case ; how few had been 
his words in court, yet how powerful had 
been their results. This client's friends be- 
came also the clients of the young attorney 
from Yale. Presently the old law sign blew 
down; it was never replaced: litigants had 




At Thirty 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 31 

found out where he was ; and in the language 
of the philosopher : "If a man can write a bet- 
ter book, preach a better sermon or make 
a better mouse-trap, than his neighbor, even 
though he build his house in the wilderness, 
the world will soon make a beaten path to his 
door." They made a path- way to the door 
of A. B. Kittredge. He could be found with- 
out a sign. 

When he first arrived in Sioux Falls, 
he took up work for a "side line" as corre- 
spondent for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. This 
caused him to spend considerable time in the 
office of the Sioux Falls Daily Press, which 
was not only a news center, but the Press 
was, at that time, the only leading republican 
daily newspaper in the state. 

Later, he formed a law partnership with 
Atty. C. H. Winsor (deceased). They were 
very prosperous. His law practice soon be- 
came so heavy that he gave up his newspaper 
correspondence. This partnership lasted un- 
til Mr. Winsor moved to New York City, in 
1895. 



32 BIOGRAPHY OF 



As a lawyer Senator Kittredge stood in 
the very front ranks. It is doubtful if any 
lawyer in the state ever won so large a per- 
centage of the cases he tried. His power in 
court came largely from his extreme reti- 
cence rather than through verbosity and pet- 
tifogging. With him words were jeweled in- 
struments for the conveyance of thought. He 
used them sparingly, but with telling effect. 
Says Mr. Kean: "His English was like a 
stream of pure water, clear and limpid." He 
never spoke in court unless it was absolutely 
necessary. Then everybody craned to listen. 
He had a compact mind and a compact mode 
of expression. 

Then, too, his additional assets in court 
were his inherent honesty, his high regard 
for competing attorneys, his faultless cour- 
tesy to the Bench, his exceptionally wide 
range of knowledge of all phases of law, his 
retentive memory, and, above all, his over- 
powering personality. He had a magnificent 
physique. His physical manhood aroused the 
admiration of all who knew him. His clear 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 33 

resonant voice appealed to his hearers. While 
it was intensely masculine, yet it was sooth- 
ing, in fact, it was so inviting that after one 
had heard him speak, quite naturally he de- 
sired promptly to engage him in conversa- 
tion. 

His silence was the basis of his general- 
ship in court. He watched the fine legal 
points in the trial of a case with the eye of an 
X-ray machine. He pitied a young practition- 
er, with long hair and excited nerves, as he 
listened to him attempt to orate and watched 
him gesticulate before the court. If other 
lawyers tried cases as he did, how short and 
simple would be the process ; how terse would 
be the transcriptions required of the report- 
er ; how easy it would be for the higher courts 
to review the cases appealed to them : in fact, 
how greatly improved would be the whole 
system of trial procedure. 

Judge E. G. Smith, formerly of the first 
judicial circuit, but now a member of the state 
supreme court, in discussing "model trials" 
with some of his friends, not long since, said : 



34 BIOGRAPHY OF 

"During my experience as a trial judge, there 
was one case tried before me at Vermillion, 
by Judge Carland on one side and Senator 
Kittredge on the other, that I have always 
looked upon as a model. There wasn't an 
unnecessary word spoken ; not an objection 
interposed that did not reach the merits of 
the case. Each attorney knew the law of 
his case thoroughly and adhered to it rigidly. 
They were both men of dignity. It really 
was a pleasure to sit in the case." 

His knowledge of law and his retentive 
memory of legal phraseology were surpass- 
ingly wonderful. He could quote whole par- 
agraphs ver batim. While other attorneys 
would be leafing — leafing — leafing through 
musty volumes to find some particular case 
to cite as a precedent, Senator Kittredge 
would quietly state it to the court. 

Again, his reasoning power was abnor- 
mal. John T. Kean, in his eulogy of him, says : 
"He reasoned with crystal clearness." This 
is true. He had one of the clearest minds 
that I, personally, have ever encountered. 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 35 

The last time I saw him alive, I was visiting 
with him in his private law office at Sioux 
Falls. While we were engaged in conversa- 
tion, the telephone rang ; he answered it. The 
call was a long-distance one from some at- 
torneys who were trying a corporation case 
at Ellendale, North Dakota. They were seek- 
ing Senator Kittredge's advice as to the best 
course to pursue to get out of a political 
tangle. 

"State the facts!" said he to them. 

After listening to the recital, he said, 
"Do this !" and he gave them the corporation 
law and its application to such cases, with a 
clearness that was simply astounding. I have 
since investigated the matter and found that 
the attorneys won their case by following 
his advice. 

Less than a half hour later, the tele- 
phone rang again. This time, a law firm 
trying a case at Madison, South Dakota, had 
gotten "swamped." They sought his advice. 
Again, he calmly said, "State the facts." 
They did so. Without a moment's hesitation, 



BIOGRAPHY OF 



and entirely from memory, he quoted a sec- 
tion of a statute covering the case. 

"Where can this statute be found?" 
queried his interrogators. Its exact location 
in the session laws was reeled off to them 
with a spontaneousness and a precision that 
staggered my mind. Yet I presume that 
such incidents were duplicated many times 
yearly in his practice, and that to him they 
were very commonplace. 

Neither time, after the interview, did he, 
in his conversation with me, make any allu- 
sion to the advice he had given : he was too 
big for that. But, the second time, as he 
was leaving the wall where the telephone 
hung, he said, "I am proud of that," pointing 
at the Certificate admitting him to practice 
law before the United States supreme court, 
which was hanging on the wall, near the 
'phone. Then he related to me, at my own 
request, the incidents of his introduction to, 
and his admission to practice before, that 
august body. 

His heart was just as clear as his brain. 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 37 

"As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." 
A. B. Kittredge thought right in his heart. No 
man ever heard him suggest a low scheme, or 
give his approval to one suggested by 
another, in order to win a case, nor, indeed, 
to win a political battle. His fights in court 
and in politics were all wide open, manly, 
courageous, and respectful. 



38 BIOGRAPHY OF 



BEFORE THE CIRCUIT COURT. 

(By Judge Levi McGee, of the Seventh 

Judicial Circuit; Rapid City, S. D.) 

"In looking back over the many events 
which have notched the years, and the public 
men who have been before the foot lights in 
the great political drama in South Dakota 
during the past quarter of a century, the 
character of the Big Silent Man who repre- 
sented us so long in the United States Senate, 
stands out in the background of our history, 
like some lone snow-capped peak in a far off 
mountain range. Senator Kittredge's polit- 
ical views were the very antipodes from that 
of my own ; he being a radical republican and 
I a democratic democrat, nevertheless, I al- 
ways admired his firm positive manner and 
his absolute sincerity in all that he did in 
public life. It is examples such as these 
which bring home to us the truth that all of 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 39 



us, regardless of party, are without doubt 
seeking the same goal for the nation, but 
traveling different routes. 

"During the many years of my acquaint- 
ance with Senator A. B. Kittredge, he has 
appeared before me, as attorney, in many 
important Court proceedings, in all of which 
he impressed me with his extraordinary 
ability. He was what might be considered 
the ideal attorney for his client. He always 
went straight to the practical effect of all he 
did and avoided useless and dilatory tactics, 
but sought to attain results with the least ef- 
fort and annoyance to the Court and its offi- 
cers ; a thing of great value to a lawyer, but 
unfortunately so few seem to understand. To 
display his legal ability as against opposing 
counsel or the Court, was never indulged in 
unless there was something to be gained for 
his client. Another and notable character- 
istic of his was to at all times be courteous to 
opposing counsel, to officers and to the Court : 
one of the most distinguishing marks of a 
great and successful lawyer. It is said that 



40 BIOGRAPHY OF 

'the shallows murmur and make a noise, but 
the great deep is dumb.' He was a forcible 
example of this rule and as I now remember 
him, in Court he maintained his life long 
reputation for short speeches, terse sentences 
and silence. 

"To my mind the late Senator was a 
wholesome example of the ideal lawyer, who 
sought results for his clients, rather than to 
chase legal phantoms at the expense of such 
results. I do not mean by this that he was 
not acquainted with all of the best principles 
of the law, for he had few equals in this re- 
gard, but he always sought to make such 
knowledge practical. He will be treated by 
future historians as one of the great lawyers 
of the northwest. 

Very truly yours, 

Levi McGee." 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 41 



KITTREDGE BEFORE THE STATE 

SUPREME COURT. 

(By Judge Dighton Corson, the only 

surviving member of the Court before 

whom Mr. Kittredge began his 
practice.) 
"Pierre, S. Dak., October 1, 1914. 
"O. W. Coursey, 

Mitchell, S. Dak. 
Dear Sir: — 

"It is with great pleasure that I comply 
with your request to make a brief statement 
as to the standing of Hon. A. B. Kittredge as 
a member of the Bar of the Supreme Court of 
this State. 

"During the twenty-three years I had 
the honor to be a member of that Court, he 
argued many important cases before it, all 
of which were presented to the Court, both by 
briefs and orally, with marked learning and 
ability and the arguments of no member of 
the Bar were listened to with greater interest 



42 BIOGRAPHY OF 



or received more consideration than those of 
Mr. Kittredge. 

"It may be stated further that all the 
members of the Supreme Court regarded him 
as one of the leaders of the Bar and one of its 
ablest members. 

"It may be added also that while Mr. 
Kittredge presented his cases to the Court 
with great earnestness and zeal, he carefully 
observed his duty to the Court as counsel and 
always treated the Court and its members 
with great respect and courtesy. 
Yours truly, 

Dighton Corson." 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 43 



KITTREDGE AS OPPOSING COUNSEL. 
(By John E. Carland, United States Circuit 
Judge.) 
"Washington, October 20, 1914. 
"0. W. Coursey, 

Mitchell, S. D. 
My dear Sir: — 

"I have received your letter of October 
10th, and note what you say in regard to the 
Biography of the late Senator Kittredge now 
being prepared by you. 

"I have not the time to prepare an ex- 
tended article upon Mr. Kittredge as 'Oppos- 
ing Counsel'. I will gladly say, however, 
that I was opposed to Mr. Kittredge in some 
of the most important litigation in which he 
was engaged as counsel, and for many years 
presided as Judge at trials in which he was 
counsel on one side or the other. From such 
experiences I always found him intensely 
loyal to his clients and a tireless worker at all 



44 BIOGRAPHY OF 

times to win success by all honorable means. 
He had the quality at all times, regardless of 
provocation, of conducting himself in the 
trial of a cause with the utmost courtesy, 
never allowing himself to descend to bitter 
personalities towards opposing counsel. 
Very respectfully, 

John E. Carland." 



CHAPTER III. 

KITTREDGE, THE POLITICIAN 

POLITICAL LEADERSHIP. HIS RETICENCE. 
CHAIRMAN OF COMMITTEES. 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 47 



POLITICAL LEADERSHIP. 

That A. B. Kittredge should have become 
interested in politics, is but a natural conse- 
quence. His disposition and his magnetic 
personality, plus his brain power and his ret- 
icence, combined to give him leadership. He 
never sought it, — leadership was invariably 
thrust upon him. His great poise and his ex- 
ceptional judgment made him a man to whom 
other men would naturally look for guidance. 



48 BIOGRAPHY OF 



HIS RETICENCE. 

In politics as in law — only perhaps, more 
so, — much of his strength lay in his reticence. 
It would be hard to imagine a man more 
guarded in his conversation than A. B. Kit- 
tredge always was. It was a physical im- 
possibility for a newspaper reporter to get an 
interview out of him. This was admirably 
illustrated during the campaign of 1900. 
when Senator Kittredge, then but a private 
citizen, was accompanying the celebrated 
Marcus M. Hanna, of Ohio, on his great 
speech-making trip through South Dakota. 

A red-hot fight was on in the state be- 
tween Senator Pettigrew and Mr. Kittredge 
to control the state legislature which would 
be called upon to elect a United States sena- 
tor to succeed Mr. Pettigrew. For this rea- 
son, reporters thought it would be easy to get 
an interview out of Mr. Kittredge who was 
conducting the campaign against his old po- 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 49 



litical master. Several of them tried it; all 
failed. Then an old experienced eastern re- 
porter tried it. Mr. Kittredge stood like 
the Sphynx on the Sahara as the fellow 
hurled forth questions at him ; yet, withal, he 
was not discourteous (he never was to any- 
body), for he answered the fellow's ques- 
tions with "Yes" or "No." Finally, the be- 
wildered reporter, not wishing to be outdone, 
thought best to change his tactics; so he 
asked, "What is the largest city in your state, 
Mr. Kittredge?" 

"Sioux Falls," came the ready reply. 

The reporter gave it up and returned to 
his comrades. He said : "I have been trying 
to get that South Dakota mummy to talk, but 
after adding two words — 'Sioux Falls' — to 
his vocabulary, I quit." 

His extreme reticence was characteristic 
of the man. When President Roosevelt, dur- 
ing his administration, visited Sioux Falls, 
and made a speech at that place, it was but 
natural that the citizens' committee should 



50 BIOGRAPHY OF 

have engaged Senator Kittredge to introduce 
him. 

At a time like that, when a great crowd 
had assembled and had stood waiting for a 
long while to see and to hear the nation's 
chief executive, how inappropriate would 
have been a "long-winded" introductory 
speech. No man could have acquitted him- 
self better than did Senator Kittredge ; none 
other in the state could have been so brief and 
yet have said so much. Think of it! Only 
two words. 

Pointing at President Roosevelt, he said, 
"The President!" (Perhaps the down-east 
reporter, had he heard him, might have said 
that he had added "two" more words to his 
vocabulary). The crowd were astonished; 
they applauded vociferously. It was suffi- 
cient. Why have said more? Many another 
man had been "a" president of the United 
States; but just then, Theodore Roosevelt 
was the most conspicuous figure in the entire 
habitable world. He was "The President!" 
That is, he was running the office, not the of- 






SENATOR KITTREDGE 51 

- ■ — - i ■-- - -^ 

fice running him. To the whole American 
people, he was the one man "THE PRESI- 
DENT." Senator Kittredge had chosen his 
language well. 



52 BIOGRAPHY OF 



CHAIRMAN OF POLITICAL 
COMMITTEES. 

He had only been in South Dakota two 
years when he was made chairman of the 
Minnehaha County Republican committee. At 
that time he was but twenty-six years of age 
— a mere boy; yet old political heads began 
looking to him for leadership. Modestly he 
yielded to their demands. He never thought 
of political preferment for himself, — it was 
always the good of his party that he had in 
mind, and the prestige he could bring to bear 
for his friends. He was, strangely enough, a 
man wholly without political ambitions. In 
his appointment to the United States senate 
by Governor Herreid on July 11, 1901, he 
merely had "greatness thrust upon him." 

With him at the helm, Minnehaha county 
soon became overwhelmingly republican. The 
young political organizer was "getting in his 
work." It soon found reward. He was sent 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 53 



as senator from that county to our first state 
legislature in 1889, and returned again in 
1891. His work in the state senate is with- 
out a flaw. His political enemies dug it up 
word for word during the memorable fight of 
1908 ; but they gave it up, there was nothing 
in it to condemn him or that needed explana- 
tion. He had been a true servant of his con- 
stituents and of the state at large. Smilingly, 
and yet with characteristic modesty, did he 
say, "I shall be glad to stand on my record." 

Well did ex-Lieutenant-Governor John 
T. Kean say in his eulogy of him : "Let us in- 
dulge in the hope that so long as cold marble 
shall retain its enduring form, that the 
memory of his industry, his honesty, his 
fidelity to his friends, his state and the nation, 
his great mind and his heart of gold, shall 
ever prove a noble and lasting inspiration to 
the youth of this great commonwealth." 

And well did Charles M. Day say: "Of 
what he had done during the past twenty-five 
years ; of how he had grown from a briefless 
attorney to one whose counsel and advice 



54 BIOGRAPHY OF 

were sought through the west ; of how, from 
an unknown youth, he had developed into a 
leader, with the largest and most devoted per- 
sonal following ever known in South Dakota ; 
of how, with no backing but that of good 
health and lofty purpose, he had won his way 
to the front — these are the things I should 
like to speak about today." 

His quiet, effective work in the legisla- 
tures of 1889 and 1891 commanded state-wide 
attention ; so that, in 1892, he was elected re- 
publican national committeeman for South 
Dakota. The republican party throughout 
the nation was wavering. South Dakota re- 
publicanism threatened to do likewise. Grover 
Cleveland, a democrat, had that year been 
elected president to succeed Benjamin Har- 
rison, a republican. The national organiza- 
tion wanted a strong man to look after its af- 
fairs in South Dakota. All eyes turned to A. 
B. Kittredge. 

He continued as national committeeman 
for four years ; then he resigned. Yet, dur- 
ing this period, he had, unconsciously, by se- 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 55 

curing the appointment of at least five hun- 
dred men to office, built up an organization 
that proved to be a powerful factor in his fu- 
ture political battles. 



CHAPTER IV. 
UNITED STATES SENATOR 

APPOINTED SENATOR. THE PANAMA CANAL. 

JUDICIARY COMMITTEE. LUMBER TRUST. 

OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS. DECORATION 

DAY SPEECH. PATRONAGE 

EPISODE. 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 57 



APPOINTED SENATOR 

When Senator Kyle, of South Dakota, 
died in 1901, it left a vacancy in the congres- 
sional delegation from this state. Under the 
United States Constitution, "If vacancies (in 
the senate) happen by resignation or other- 
wise during the recess of the legislature of 
any state, the executive thereof may make 
temporary appointment until the next meet- 
ing of the legislature." At that time, Charles 
N. Herreid, a republican, was governor of 
South Dakota. It became his official duty to 
fill the vacancy by appointment. The very 
moment that he received the telegram an- 
nouncing the death of Senator Kyle, he decid- 
ed in his own mind to appoint A. B. Kit- 
tredge. Although applications, letters and 
telegrams poured in upon him, and numerous 
delegations called to see him, and he gave 
to each respectful consideration, yet he never 
swerved from his original conviction. 



58 BIOGRAPHY OF 

There has been so much said and written 
about the appointment, in times gone by, that 
was mere guess work — products of fertile 
imaginations, told as truth, but never denied 
either by Governor Herreid or Senator Kit- 
tredge "that I decided to give Governor Her- 
reid an opportunity to break the full truth, 
for the first time, to the people of the state, 
through this volume, and tell why he ap- 
pointed Mr. Kittredge to the senate, if he so 
desired. Therefore, I wrote him as follows : 



"Mitchell, South Dakota, September 21, 1914. 
"Governor C. N. Herreid, 

Aberdeen, South Dakota. 
My dear Sir: — 

"Inasmuch as I have undertaken to write 
a complete biography of Senator Alfred B. 
Kittredge, I will thank you to answer the fol- 
lowing questions in full, and give to me the 
privilege of publishing your reply in its en- 
tirety : 

(1) What was your estimate of Sen- 
ator Kittredge as a man? 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 59 



( 2 ) How did you rate him as a lawyer ? 

(3) What were the conditions that led 
up to, and your reasons for, appointing him 
to the United States senatorship ? 

"At your early convenience, I shall thank 
you for a definite reply. Awaiting receipts 
of the same, I am, 

Yours truly, 

0. W. Coursey." 



"Aberdeen, S. D., September 22,1914. 
"O. W. Coursey, 

Mitchell, So. Dak., 
Dear friend : — 

"Answering your three interrogatories, 
will say : Although I had been well acquaint- 
ed with Mr. Kittredge for many years, I did 
not know him intimately prior to the great 
campaign of 1898. 

"At the urgent request of the Republi- 
can nominees I became Chairman of the Re- 
publican State Committee with headquarters 
at Sioux Falls. Mr. Kittredge was the Re- 
publican National Committeeman for South 



60 BIOGRAPHY OF 

Dakota. For ten long weeks I devoted all 
my time and best efforts to the election of the 
Republican State ticket. It was a memor- 
able contest, resulting in the election of 
Messrs. Gamble and Burke for Congress and 
the entire state ticket, excepting Mr. Kirk G. 
Phillips for Governor, who was defeated by 
Gov. Lee by three hundred twenty-five votes. 

"I could relate some thrilling episodes 
during this exciting campaign. For ten 
weeks I was on the most intimate terms with 
the future senator and we learned to know 
each other as it would have been impossible 
under ordinary circumstances. This inti- 
mate acquaintance ripened into a mutual and 
lasting confidence and respect. 

"Every day, when the rush of work and 
worry was over, usually towards midnight, 
or later, we would, alone, sit down and for 
an hour or two try to forget the arduous lab- 
ors of the day. Mr. Kittredge seemed to de- 
light in stating complicated legal problems, 
and my questions and comments seemed to 
interest and please him, and these private 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 61 

excursions into law, literature, history and 
philosophy were restful, helpful and delight- 
ful to both of us. 

"Before leaving Sioux Falls, Mr. Kit- 
tredge informed me that he was through with 
personal, practical politics forever, and 
henceforth should devote all his energies to 
the practice of law. I well remember my 
surprise when he handed me his proxy as Na- 
tional Committeeman, and insisted that I 
accept it. Reluctantly I yielded. He knew 
that I too had decided to return home to 
practice law, fully intending never again to 
assume a political position. 

"Two years later, against my own incli- 
nations, I accepted a nomination by acclama- 
tion for Governor, and was elected. When 
by the death of Senator Kyle, it became my 
duty to appoint a U. S. Senator for our state, 
my own estimate of Mr. Kittredge as a great 
jurist and a man, convinced me that he was 
the man for the place, and if I appointed him 
that he would soon develop into a great 
statesman. Fearing he might not care for 



62 BIOGRAPHY OF 



the appointment, I quietly and privately met 
him and spent a day with him alone, in ear- 
nest deliberation. He concluded to accept the 
appointment; to abandon his legal career; 
and to devote all his time to the interests of 
our state. 

"In reply to my message informing him 
of his appointment, he sent the following 
characteristic telegram : 

"Sioux Falls, S. D., July 11, 1901, 
4:50 P. M. 
'Hon. Charles N. Herreid, 
Pierre, S. D. 
'Thank you. I will do my best to bring credit 
to the state, party, yourself and our friends. 
A. B. Kittredge.' 

"And he did ! Subsequent events are mat- 
ters of history. He very soon took his place 
among the great men in the Senate and bo- 
came known on two continents, as one of 
the leading Statesmen of our Country. 

"The legislature had enacted a law (C\\ 
134 L 1901) the significance of which no one 
realized until after the proceedings had been 
begun by our Attorney General for th^ col- 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 63 

lection of a gift to the State of certain North 
Carolina bonds amounting to about $27,400. 
00, (See Gov. Message, 1905 P. 41). In 1904, 
the State, through the then Attorney General 
Hon. Philo Hall of Brookings, was tendered 
as a donation to the agricultural College at 
Brookings, North Carolina bonds to the 
amount of $75,000.00. As the collection of 
a 'gift' by proceedings in court did not seem 
to me to be a dignified proceeding, I courte- 
ously, but firmly, declined this donation. At 
this time it was quite popular for our Rocke- 
fellers and Carnegies to bestow gifts, for 
educational, charitable and benevolent pur- 
poses, both private and public, even munici- 
pal corporations greedily seeking such dona- 
tions. As the statute in question as inter- 
preted by Attorney General Pyle and others, 
was mandatory, the Governor being 'directed 
to accept the same,' my refusal was censured, 
particularly and naturally by friends of this 
institution. Smarting under such criticism 
I laid the matter before Senator Kittredge 
and his approval was very gratifying. He 



64 BIOGRAPHY OF 



said 'You are legally wrong, but morally 
right.' The next year the same course was 
followed by Governor Elrod. 

"During the consideration of all public 
matters the question he invariably asked was, 
'What is the right thing to do?' 

"Senator Kittredge was not a politician 
in the ordinary accepted sense of the term. 
He was never a political 'Boss'. But he was a 
Jurist and a Statesman. 

Respectfully yours, 

Charles N. Herreid" 

Governor Herreid's selection of a man 
to succeed Mr. Kyle in the United States sen- 
ate was clearly vindicated by the state at 
large ; for, in 1903, when the legislature met 
in executive session to elect a man to the po- 
sition, they chose, by a unanimous vote, Gov- 
ernor Herreid's appointee — Alfred Beard 
Kittredge. 

It is due Governor Herreid to make it a 
part of our state history that the majority of 
his party leaders wanted him to resign the 
governorship ; cause the lieutenant-governor, 




U. S. Senator— At Forty 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 65 

Hon. George Snow, of Springfield, to become 
governor and let him appoint Governor Her- 
reid to the senate. This he refused to do, but 
sacrificed himself for the man of his own 
selection. 

It is the young men of the world that 
have made its history. Alexander The Great 
was but twenty-one when he mastered the 
Balkans, and but twenty-five when he crossed 
the Himalayas with his powerful army and 
conquered India. Martin Luther was a 
Bachelor of Arts at nineteen, a Master at 
twenty-two, broke with the church of Rome 
at twenty-seven, and sat in the Diet of Worms 
at thirty-four. Bryant wrote the greatest 
poem in the English tongue, "Thanatopsis," 
at the tender age of eighteen, while his con- 
temporary, Longfellow, who was at this same 
age when he graduated from Bowdoin, was 
already well launched on his literary career. 
Theodore Roosevelt, at the age of twenty- 
four, wrote our standard history of the war 
of 1812 with Great Britain ; at forty led the 
bloody charge at San Juan, and at forty-three 



66 BIOGRAPHY OF 

became president of the nation. Just so with 
A. B. Kittredge. He was but three months 
past his fortieth birthday when Governor 
Herreid appointed him to the senate. Much 
was expected of him ; much received. Using 
his own words : "Without recognition of the 
force of youth in business and civic affairs 
* * * the best energy of the nation is lost." 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 67 



THE PANAMA CANAL. 

As previously set forth, Mr. Kittredge, 
when regularly elected to the United States 
senate, in 1903, had already served one and a 
half years in that body, by appointment. 
During this brief period, he had made a 
phenomenal record. He had been assigned to 
duty on two of the most vital committees 
in the senate — the committee on Inter-Ocean- 
ic Canals and the Judiciary committee. It 
was the first time that South Dakota had 
ever been given conspicuous recognition in 
the upper branch of our national legislature. 

The untimely death of Senator Marcus 
M. Hanna, of Ohio, caused Senator Kittredge 
to succeed to the chairmanship of the Canal 
committee. Here, he at once became a power- 
ful factor in national and international af- 
fairs. His habits of study, his great physical 
strength and his trained legal mind enabled 
him to go to the bottom of that great perplex- 



68 BIOGRAPHY OF 

ing problem — the title to the Panama route 
for the canal. 

His *report on the Title was approved by 
the president of the United States ; sanctioned 
by the department of Justice, and adopted 
unanimously, without the alteration of a 
word or syllable, by the United States 
senate. 

His report on the type of canal — 
whether it was to be a sea-level or a lock 
canal — was even a greater effort than his 
first. It is one of the best scientific treatises 
on canal construction ever published. The 
writer is absolutely convinced that the ver- 
dict of civilization will be that Senator Kit- 
tredge was right and that the "ideal canal" 
(a sea-level one) for which he pleaded so ably 
and so eloquently on the floor of the senate, 
will yet have to be dug ; in fact, the younger 
element of the present generation will, in all 
probability, live to see it done. 

*His report consists of fifteen printed pages. It 
constitutes "Senate Report 783, Part 2, 57th Con- 
gress, 1st Session. Isthmian Canal — Views of the 
Minority." The report may be had for the asking. 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 69 

One of the great events of Senator 
Kittredge's official career, was his trip to 
Panama, as chairman of the canal committee 
that had in charge its construction, accom- 
panied by Mr. Taft, who was at that time 
Secretary of War, and a number of able 
engineers, on a tour of inspection. He in- 
vited Governor Herreid to accompany him 
on this trip, as his guest, but the Governor 
could not get away at the time. 



BIOGRAPHY OF 



JUDICIARY COMMITTEE. 

It is an unusual thing for a young sena- 
tor to be honored by being given recognition 
on the Judiciary Committee. This commit- 
tee wrestles with problems of constitutional 
law. It's membership is reserved for "older 
heads"— the brainiest legal talent in the 
senate. Senator Kittredge's early appoint- 
ment on this important committee shows 
with what suddenness his great legal talent 
was not only detected but recognized in the 
national law-making body. Conjunctively, 
his chairmanship of the canal committee de- 
manded a well balanced legal mind. His 
positions on both committees were compli- 
ments to his legal training. And these 
committee assignments, in turn, reflected 
great credit upon the young state of the West 
that had sent him to the senate. 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 71 



LUMBER TRUST. 

Another perplexing national problem 
had arisen with regard to the so-called lum- 
ber trust. Senator Kittredge tackled it with 
his accustomed zeal. For two years he quiet- 
ly gathered the evidence against its illegal 
operations. Then, suddenly, without "ad- 
vance announcement," he quietly arose in 
the United States senate and offered a resolu- 
tion for its investigation. Everything be- 
came solemnly quiet. Not a sound was heard 
except the accents of his own voice. Nobody 
stirred. A great personality was overpower- 
ing them; a master of argument had arisen 
to speak. 

His speech on that occasion was charac- 
teristic of the man. There isn't a superflu- 
ous word in it. Every sentence is measured 
with the mind of a master builder. In array 
of facts it is neat and terse ; in presentation 
it is logical ; in argument it is faultless. 



72 BIOGRAPHY OF 

The original resolution calling for an 
investigation of the lumber trust was offered 
in the senate by Mr. Kittredge on December 
6, 1906. It follows : 

"Resolved, That the Secretary of Commerce and 
Labor be, and he is hereby, authorized and instructed 
immediately to inquire, investigate, and report to 
Congress, or to the President when Congress is not 
in session, from time to time as the investigation 
proceeds, as to the lumber trade or business of the 
United States which is the subject of interstate oi 
foreign commerce and make full inquh'y into the 
cause or causes of the high prices of lumber in its 
various stages of manufacture from the log; and the 
said investigation and inquiry shall be conducted with 
the particular object of ascertaining whether or not 
there exists among any corporations, companies, or 
persons, engaged in the manufacture or sale of 
lumber any combination, conspiracy, trust, agree- 
ment, or contract intended to operate in restraint of 
lawful trade or commerce in lumber or to increase 
the market price of lumber in any part of the United 
States. 

"To carry out and give effect to the provisions 
of this resolution the Secretary shall have power to 
issue subpoenas, administer oaths, examine wit- 
nesses, require the production of books and papers, 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 73 

and receive depositions taken before any proper 
officer in any State in the United States. 

"That the Secretary of Commerce and Labor 
be required to make the said investigation at his 
earliest possible convenience and to furnish the in- 
formation above required from time to time and as 
soon as it can be done consistent with the perform- 
ance of his public duties." 

Six weeks later, on January 18, 1907, 
Mr. Kittredge arose in the senate and asked 
to have the preceding resolution modified by- 
striking out the second paragraph. The mod- 
ification was agreed to. (Congressional Re- 
cord — Senate, 1907, page 1331, Column I). It 
was during the discussion of the proposed 
change in the original resolution that Sena- 
tor Kittredge made his memorable speech. 
Only a few general extracts from it are here- 
in embodied. 

"Mr. President : There are few articles 
of commerce that bear more important 
relation to the welfare of the people of all 
classes, and particularly to those of small 
means in farming communities, than lumber 
in its manufactured form. It is an absolute 



74 BIOGRAPHY OF 

necessity to the development of those por- 
tions of the country adapted exclusively to 
agriculture, as much so as food, clothing, 
and all other articles necessary to human 
comfort and even existence. The prices of 
such an article affect in the most vital man- 
ner the prosperity of every community in 
the land, both rural and urban. 

"For more than twenty years I have 
lived in a section of the country requiring 
the importation of all lumber that has entered 
into the home building of a fertile but tree- 
less prairie. The State which I have the 
honor in part to represent has occupied its 
position in the sisterhood of States less than 
twenty years, but in that brief period her 
population has grown until it now exceeds 
half a million people. 

"I have watched the development of that 
country by the unremitting toil of a sturdy 
yeomanry, schooled by habits of industry and 
frugality, paying tribute to what I believe to 
be the most gigantic, exacting, and soulless 
of the trusts that oppress our people. 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 75 



"The lumber trust is the king of com- 
binations in restraint of trade. In its far- 
reaching effects there is none to compare with 
it. It is remorseless in its grasp on the 
people, and the only change which it contem- 
plates is to increase the price of its products 
at stated and frequent intervals without re- 
gard to cost. The consumer not only bears 
the burden of its aggressive policy of advanc- 
ing prices, but also of the profits of interven- 
ing agencies. For him there is no escape 
from the avarice of this monopoly. To him 
the lumber trust is a tangible, living reality. 
When he sees these advancing prices without 
reference to increased cost of production, he 
needs no argument to convince him that the 
Government to which he contributes his sup- 
port and renders true allegiance is derelict 
in its duty, unless it employs all the resources 
at its command to relieve him of these op- 
pressions. The people demand this as a right 
and not as a favor. The trust has become 
so bold in its operations within the last year 
or two that it has eliminated in many locali- 



76 BIOGRAHPY OF 

ties all semblance of competition and from a 
central point controls both the wholesale and 
retail trade and fixes the price to consumer. 



The methods by which this trust has ob- 
tained control of the lumber business of this 
country are no longer necessarily a secret. It 
not only arbitrarily advances the prices of 
lumber at stated intervals, but by various 
means attempts to discourage independent 
dealers from entering its field. Failing in 
that, it resorts to drastic and unscrupulous 
methods to crush them and ruin their busi- 
ness. 

"Much of the information which I have 
obtained concerning this subject is of a con- 
fidential nature. For obvious reasons, dealers, 
unwillingly in the grasp of the monopoly, are 
reluctant to divulge information relating to 
their dealings with it. All such informa- 
tion, however, will be easily accessible to the 
Department of Commerce and Labor opera- 
ting under the authority and direction of con- 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 77 

gress. The evidence already developed con- 
clusively shows that the whole country is 
subdivided into territories, each of which is 
dominated by an association maintaining a 
mere shadow of independence and in com- 
plete control of such territory, subject to the 
direction of the trust. The retail dealers 
within these respective subdivisions are not 
permitted to compete with each other either 
in the same town or within the alloted ter- 
ritory, and the minimum price which the re- 
tailer may charge is fixed by the association. 
If such retailer violates any of the directions 
of the association he is first subjected to a 
system of heavy fines and penalties, if such 
violations are repeated the offender is then 
blacklisted and finally eliminated from doing 
business. Such is the discipline to which all 
retail dealers are subjected by the association 
to maintain the supremacy of the trust. 

"Oftentimes the retail dealers in a local- 
ity are united in an association, or combina- 
ation, to maintain prices higher than the 
minimum fixed by the trust and they are al- 



78 BIOGRAPHY OF 



ways restricted to the territory prescribed by 
the dominant trust. As notice to the trade, 
the trust issues from time to time a 'Direc- 
tory of Regular Retail Lumber Dealers' 
authorized to engage in business within a 

prescribed territory. 

***** 

"But the retail dealers are not alone in 
the clutches of the trust. The wholesaler is 
subject to its domination as well. If he sells 
to an unauthorized dealer he Is subject to 
boycott and other penalties. 

"The mill men are also subject to like 
domination and like discipline, although they 
have an association of their own subject to 
the parent association, which fixes prices, 
prescribes territory within which each mem- 
ber may operate and beyond which none can 
ship or solicit business, and are subject to 
penalties for violations of their agreements. 
Prior to this organization there was competi- 
tion. Since it became effective there is none. 
***** 

"Where authorized local dealers have an 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 79 

organization, a bill of lumber is never sold 
by a member without first advising all the 
other members. In such cases the local deal- 
ers are permitted to charge any price above 
the minimum fixed by the trust. It is notice- 
able that no objection is ever made by the 
trust to an advance of prices. The offense 
consists in a reduction only. The customer 
is required to wait until all the members of 
the association can be advised and the dealer 
who by arrangement is to receive the busi- 
ness is assisted by his sham competitors 
quoting higher prices. In this way the busi- 
ness is distributed and 'equalized.' 
***** 

"Mr. President: When I first began to 
make inquiry into the conditions of the lum- 
ber trade in the Northwest, I found it difficult 
to obtain evidence respecting the operations 
of the trust. Since offering this resolution 
I have received a great mass of correspon- 
dence relating to the subject from all 
sections of the country. Many of the writers 
have related in detail their experience, both 



80 BIOGRAPHY OF 

as dealers in and consumers of lumber. I 
have not the slightest doubt of the ability of 
the executive department to establish, by an 
abundance of competent evidence, the fact 
of the existence of a conspiracy, in contra- 
vention of law, affecting the lumber business. 
"Within the past five years the prices of 
lumber and timber products have been arbi- 
trarily advanced from 100 to 500 per cent. 
Prices of dimension stuff have advanced 50 
per cent in the last four years. Ordinary 
flooring was advanced 33 1-3 per cent during 
the past twelve months, and the price of oak 
flooring has been forced at intervals during 
the past two years from $40 to $100 per 
thousand feet, an advance of 150 per cent 
from a price which was already high. Of this 
latter price $50, or upwards of 80 per cent of 
the net advance, is nothing better than rob- 
bery and is, in fact, the plunder of a com- 
mercial outlaw. 

* :!: * * :<: 

"The results of my investigation during 
1905 were laid before the proper Executive 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 81 

Department in that year. I was convinced 
at that time that the lumber trade in the 
Northwest was under the control, more or 
less absolute, of an illegal and oppressive 
combination, but I did not know then, as I 
believe that I have now demonstrated beyond 
a reasonable doubt, that the combination 
which holds the Northwest in its grasp is a 
gigantic conspiracy to exact tribute from 
American people, regardless of their geo- 
graphical distribution. I did not know then 
as I now do know that the Northwestern 
Lumbermen's Association had its counter- 
part in every section of the country, each op- 
erating in territory with well defined and 
carefully prescribed metes and bounds, and 
each a counterpart of a monstrous monopoly 
which owns billions of acres of forest lands 
in fee simple, controls mills and factories, 
distributes their outputs, and fixes prices 
therefor without regard to the law of supply 
and demand, the cost of production, the wel- 
fare of communities or the rights of persons, 
and operates in flagrant defiance of the laws 
of Congress. 



82 BIOGRAPHY OF 

''This criminal combination is a menace 
to the whole country on which it preys. Of 
all the trusts perhaps this is the only one of 
which it may be truthfully said that it is lit- 
erally with us from the cradle to the grave. 
The Federal Government alone has the legal 
authority and judicial power to punish and 
dissolve it." 

Four years, four months and one day 
after Senator Kittredge delivered his re- 
markable speech in the senate against the 
lumber trust, the Associated Press had this 
to say: 

"New York, May 19, 1911.— Sweeping 
charges of a gigantic conspiracy to maintain 
high prices, to blacklist concerns not regard- 
ed as proper in the trade, and to violate 
generally the Sherman anti-trust law, were 
made in a government suit filed by Attorney- 
General Wickersham in the United States 
court here today against the so-called lumber 
trust. The trade organization, and more 
than one hundred fifty individuals, are 
named as defendants in the suit." 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 83 



Thus, as will be seen by a comparison 
of dates, Senator Kittredge had been laid 
in his grave but eleven days when the crash 
came, — when the actual results of his great 
speech became fully manifest to an aston- 
ished nation. It is regrettable that he could 
not have lived to have witnessed these re- 
sults. 



84 BIOGRAPHY OF 



OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS. 

While in the senate he also wrote, had 
introduced, and followed through to its en- 
actment, a new copyright law. Under its 
provisions, both authors and artists can pro- 
tect their works. Two of his South Dakota 
constituents were among the very first au- 
thors to take advantage of the new law. 

South Dakota was settled to quite an 
extent by Civil War veterans, some thirty or 
more years ago. These men are now old. 
Many of them are not self-supporting. 
They need large pensions, and they are enti- 
tled to them. Senator Kittredge was wonder- 
fully successful in assisting in this pension 

work. 

Although the Senator was by choice a 
bachelor, yet no man held the American home 
in higher regard than he. When the ques- 
tion of allowing Reed Smoot, of Utah, to 
retain his seat in the senate, was under de- 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 85 

bate in that body, Senator Kittredge said : 

"Our fathers, in framing the provisions 
of our constitution, had in mind the Chris- 
tian religion, and not an alleged religion 
whose fundamental tenet is based upon im- 
morality prohibited by law. For, from the 
very beginning, the Mormon people — no mat- 
ter what their creed may be — have been 
taught from the cradle to the grave, pollution 
in the home. It has not been my good for- 
tune to have a home of my own, but as long 
as I remain in the senate, my voice shall be 
raised and my vote shall be given in favor of 
the purity of the American home." 



86 BIOGRAPHY OF 



DECORATION DAY SPEECH. 

Another great speech which Mr. Kit- 
tredge made while in the senate, although not 
delivered in that body, was his Memorial Ad- 
dress delivered at Woonsocket, this state, on 
Decoration Day, 1907. As a philosophic 
speech on the fundamental principles of good 
citizenship, it is a classic. In the copious 
extracts from it which follow, that part per- 
taining largely to the old veterans has been 
intentionally omitted, thereby laying accent 
on the civic part of it. He said : 

"When, in November, 1863, Abraham 
Lincoln went to the battlefield of Gettysburg 
and delivered that short but impressive ora- 
tion over the graves of the heroes who there 
'gave their lives that the nation might live,' 
he set an example for a grateful people to 
emulate for all time. By the use of less than 
three hundred words, and in a period not ex- 
ceeding three minutes in duration, he pro- 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 87 

nounced a masterpiece of oratory as immor- 
tal as the deeds of the heroes to whose 
memory he was paying the loving tribute of 
a nation. 

:j« :!: ;£ :£ :Js 

"That was forty-four years ago, and the 
great soul that prayed that the nation might 
have 'a new birth of freedom' was called to 
his reward by an assassin's bullet before the 
consummation of his hopes were fully real- 
ized. 

:H :£ ^c :;■; :je 

"The great work on the battle fields was 
performed largely by young men. The ranks 
of both armies were filled largely with mere 
boys. 'Old men for counsel, young men for 
war,' is an old adage, yet its adaptation is not 
confined to the mere military features of a 
nation's life. The boy of today is the man 
of tomorrow, and without recognition of the 
force of youth in business and civic affairs, 
as well as in war, the best energy of the na- 
tion is ignored. Upon the young men of to- 
day I wish to impress the importance of 



BIOGRAPHY OF 



solving the problems of this generation as 
faithfully and practically as their fathers 
met and solved the problems that confronted 
them from '61 to '65. 

"A living nation's work is never done. 
The unfinished tasks of one generation are 
the inheritance of the next. You may not 
have to take part in a great war. (It is both 
probable and greatly to be hoped that you 
will not), but you have tasks not less impor- 
tant because they are different. If 'peace 
hath its victories no less renowned than war,' 
it likewise has civic problems that recur with 
surprising monotony from generation to 
generation. 

"We are surprised and shocked at the 
revelations of corruption in civic affairs by 
men in public positions, and we hang our 
heads in shame for the offenses of men in 
private life; yet the cause of it all is the 
weakness of human nature — the want of vir- 
tue and integrity in the individual. 

"The man who is dishonest in his per- 
sonal dealings wants only the opportunity of 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 89 

public position to become, in the parlance of 
the day, a public instead of a private 'graft- 
er.' We sometimes hear it said of a public 
official who has disgraced his station, that he 
is 'personally honest; personally, a good 
fellow, etc' Let us remember that one can- 
not be personally honest and officially dishon- 
est. There is no such thing as impersonal 
dishonesty. Let us remember that the corner 
stone of our governmental structure is 
intelligent personal integrity. Upon it de- 
pends the endurance of the republic. 

"The state was made for man, not man 
for the state. Government is ordained for 
man's benefit, and it must not be used as a 
means to exploit either the community or the 
individual; nor, on the other hand, should it 
be exploited by the individual or used as a 
shield to protect him who undertakes to ex- 
ploit it. The grafter in private life, though 
less conspicuous than his kinsman in public 
station, is equally an 'undesirable citizen ;' in 
fact, in some respects, he is more dangerous 
to the public welfare, because of the less like- 
lihood of detection. 



90 BIOGRAPHY OF 



"The success or failure of our national 
life depends upon our young men and young 
women. There should be inculcated in the 
youth the simple rules of right living, the 
sacredness of obligation ; the fact that sobrie- 
ty, industry, frugality and square dealing 
are indispensable elements in the formation 
of high character and that the Ten Com- 
mandments contain living principles which it 
is wise — even from the commercial point of 

view — to hold in high regard. 
***** 

"The life of the community reflects the 
varied characters of its component parts. 
The state is a federation of communities, and 
the nation is a federation of all. The energy 
of our young people insures their material 
success. Whether we may speak with equal 
confidence concerning our social and political 
institutions depends upon the generation in 
whose keeping for the time being is the heri- 
tage which the Union soldier has handed 
down to us. His sword struck the shackles 
from the slaves, and his blood cemented the 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 91 

Union and made it 'one and inseparable.' We 
can rear no shaft that will add lustre to his 
glory. No memorial in tablet of stone is re- 
quired to perpetuate his deeds of heroism. 
The nation's debt of gratitude to him can 
never be paid. 

"Let us then resolve to hold sacred the 
heritage he bequeathed to us, to carry for- 
ward the work he has left us to do, and al- 
ways to bear in mind that the crowning glory 
of his work in the keeping of this and of each 
succeeding generation will be, in the lan- 
guage of Lincoln, that 'government of the 
people, by the people, and for the people, shall 
not perish from the earth.' " 



92 BIOGRAPHY OP 



PATRONAGE EPISODE. 

The distribution of political patronage 
in South Dakota by President Roosevelt, and 
Senator Kittredge's good luck in the lottery 
scheme, almost constitute a separate chapter 
in the Senator's life. The following account 
of it is taken from "The Washington Herald" 
of November 26, 1907, and is authentic : 

"The newest and most unique method of 
dispensing Federal patronage was exempli- 
fied by President Roosevelt yesterday. It 
marks a departure in the usual procedure 
governing the selection of Presidential ap- 
pointees. There is nothing complex or in- 
tricate in the process, which consists in the 
simple expedient of drawing lots or tossing 
a coin. 

"The demonstration was given for the 
benefit of two United States Senators who 
were unable to harmonize their views as to 
the distribution of Federal offices in their 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 93 

State. The President came to the conclu- 
sion that something must be done, and he 
worked out the problem to his own satisfac- 
tion. 

"In making Federal appointments in 
South Dakota, the President seemed to favor 
the preferences of Senator Gamble. When 
the names of Gamble's friends were sent to 
the Senate, Kittredge, who stands high 
among the leaders, succeeded in having them 
pigeon-holed. The result has been that there 
has been a deadlock in the President's at- 
tempts to make Federal appointments in the 
State represented by Senators Kittredge and 
Gamble. 

"At 10 o'clock yesterday morning 
Senator Gamble and Senator Kittredge met 
in the President's office. Neither knew that 
the other was to be there. That was part of 
Mr. Roosevelt's little scheme. He had writ- 
ten a letter to each Senator asking him to be 
at the White House at the hour named, and 
both Senators had hurried to Washington — 
Senator Gamble from his home in Yankton 



94 BIOGRAPHY OF 

and Senator Kittredge from his home in 
Sioux Falls. 

"Mr. Roosevelt enjoyed the joke when 
the two political enemies met face to face. 
The Senators, however, greeted each other 
politely, for they have never permitted their 
differences to pass beyond the bounds of 
courtesy. The only other person present at 
the meeting was Francis E. Leupp, Commis- 
sioner of Indian Affairs and biographer of 
the President. 

" 'Now, gentlemen/ said Mr. Roosevelt, 
when the greetings were over, 'I trust you 
have left your guns at home. If you have 
not, please deposit them on my desk.' 

"The president said other things. He 
regretted sincerely to see such good men at 
odds and would be delighted to have them 
bury their differences. While he talked he 
was doing something with his hands just 
beneath the top of his desk. Senator Kit- 
tredge, who occupied a position of vantage, 
never took his eyes from those busy hands. 
" 'Gentlemen,' he said, 'I have deter- 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 95 

mined upon a simple method of settling your 
differences. In one hand I hold a long piece 
of paper ; in the other I hold a short piece of 
paper. Whoever draws the long piece shall 
have the first choice in the appointment of 
public land officers in South Dakota. There 
are eleven of these officers to be appointed. 
The one who draws the long piece of paper 
shall name six and the other Senator may 
name five.' 

"If the two Senators were amazed they 
didn't have time to show it. The President 
waved his closed fists in the air. 

" 'I will give you first choice, Senator 
Kittredge,' he said. 

" 'Left hand,' responded Kittredge. 

"The President slowly opened the hand 
indicated. A strip of white paper lay upon 
his palm. Then he opened his right hand. 
The slip of paper that lay upon the right 
palm was shorter than the other slip. 

" 'You win, Senator Kittredge,' he said. 

"Senator Kittredge smiled. Senator 
Gamble smiled, too, but it was not a merry 
smile. 



96 BIOGRAPHY OF 

" 'The next number on the programme,' 
resumed the President, 'is the selection of 
two Indian agents.' 

"His hands were busy, as before, beneath 
the shelter of his desk. Commissioner Leupp 
drew nearer. He was interested in the out- 
come of this phase of lot-drawing. Senator 
Kittredge watched the Presidential digits out 
of the corner of his eye. 

" 'You guess again, Kittredge,' said Mr. 
Roosevelt, as he brought his closed fists into 
view. 

" 'Left,' came from Kittredge. 

" 'No ; it is Senator Gamble who is left,' 
cried the President, as he opened his fingers. 
Kittredge had won again. Commissioner 
Leupp's face grew grave. Perhaps as a fore- 
most exponent of civil service reform he did 
not like this method of determining upon the 
fitness of candidates for office. Perhaps — 
some say probably — he had a candidate of 
his own. The President saw the change in 
his biographer's usually pleasant expression. 

" 'This is rather looping the Leupp, gen- 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 97 



tlemen,' he is reported to have said. Whereat 
even Senator Gamble laughed. 

" 'Now, let us see what we have next' be- 
gan Mr. Roosevelt. 'Oh, yes; there is that 
auditor for the Interior Department. We'll 
find out if he is to stay.' 

"The auditor of the Interior is Hon. 
Robert S. Person, of South Dakota. He was 
appointed on the recommendation of Senator 
Kittredge, and is an intense Kittredge parti- 
san. The anti-Kittredge wing of the Repub- 
lican party in South Dakota has been trying 
to oust him. 

"While the President was talking, his 
hands were busy again. The eagle eye of 
Kittredge watched their every move. When 
the closed fists came above the desk the 
President exclaimed: 

" 'You shall have the first turn again, 
Senator Kittredge.' 

" 'Right hand,' said Kittredge. As the 
fingers of the President were straightened 
out, Kittredge was almost enthusiastic. 

" 'Bob Person stays,' he mumbled, and, 



98 BIOGRAPHY OF 



picking the large bit of paper from the Presi- 
dent's hands, placed it in his waistcoat 
pocket. 

"President Roosevelt was growing sus- 
picious of Kittredge. Gamble hadn't won a 
thing, and many of Gamble's friends in South 
Dakota were enthusiastic Roosevelt men. The 
President rapped his desk three times in a 
careless, nonchalant way. Senator Gamble 
crossed his fingers. 

"The next draw in the great South Da- 
kota lottery had the district attorneyship 
for a prize. 

" 'Guess,' said the President, with his 
fists in front of Kittredge. Kittredge 
guessed 'left' and guessed wrong. It was 
Gamble's win. Gamble smiled and crossed 
his fingers. 

" 'In this gamble you get the kitty for 
once,' said a still small voice. Even Senator 
Kittredge laughed. 

"The South Dakota internal revenue col- 
lectorship was disposed of in the same man- 
ner. Senator Kittredge guessed as before 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 99 

and drew the short slip. Senator Gamble 
began to look happy. 

"The two South Dakota statesmen had 
been anxious throughout the contest, but 
their anxiety was increased tenfold when the 
President turned to them again. 

"There was only one office left, and it 
was better than any of those that had gone 
before. This was the national bank examin- 
ership, the choicest plum on the South Da- 
kota political tree. 

" 'I think I shall change my method,' 
said the President. 'I think I shall toss a 
coin to decide the bank examinership.' 

"Mr. Roosevelt placed his right hand in 
the trouser pocket on that side and pulled out 
a bunch of keys. A search of his left-hand 
trousers pocket revealed nothing more than 
something that looked like a Carnegie hero 
medal. The President began to look em- 
barassed. Careful rummaging of his waist- 
coat pockets produced nothing more than an 
elk's tooth and a lock of Emperor William's 



100 BIOGRAPHY OF 

hair. Mr. Roosevelt smiled one of his quiz- 
zical smiles. 

" 'I haven't a cent,' he confessed, blush- 
ingly. 'Leupp, lend me some money,' said 
he, turning to the Commissioner of Indian 
Affairs. 

"It was Commissioner Leupp's turn to 
be embarrassed. 'I have only one coin,' he 
remarked shyly, as he handed it over to the 
President. 

"The two Senators were breathing heav- 
ily. They watched the President with in- 
tense interest. Each wanted that bank ex- 
aminership and wanted it badly. 

" 'Now, Senator Kittredge,' briskly 
spoke Mr. Roosevelt, 'I am going to give you 
a chance to guess again. When I toss this 
coin you name the side that falls uppermost, 
and if you're right you select the bank exam- 
iner. If you guess wrong. Senator Gamble 
get's him.' 

" 'Hold a minute, Mr. President,' inter- 
jected Senator Kittredge. The President low- 
ered his poised hand. 'I just want to know 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 101 

if that's a new $10 gold piece,' said Kittredge. 

" 'No, it's only a quarter,' was the Presi- 
dent's answer. 'Here goes,' and he tossed 
the money into the air. 

" 'In God we trust,' cried Kittredge fer- 
vently. 'I choose heads." 

" 'Heads she is,' said Mr. Roosevelt. 'You 
win, Senator Kittredge.' " 



CHAPTER V. 

UNDOING OF KITTREDGE. 

HIS DEFEAT. RE-ENTERS PRIVATE PRACTICE. 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 103 



HIS DEFEAT. 

Many things conspired to bring about 
Senator Kittredge's defeat for re-nomination 
to the senate in 1908. They cannot all be 
discussed or even touched upon herein. A 
spirit of unrest within the republican party, 
which had its origin in the four campaigns 
made by Mr. LaFollette for the governorship 
of Wisconsin, was manifest throughout the 
west. South Dakota caught it up. The re- 
publican party divided into two factions. In 
the state campaign of 1904, there was a 
strong showing made by the "insurgent" 
wing of the party, headed by Mr. Crawford. 
The latter was defeated for the republican 
nomination for governor by Mr. Elrod. The 
defeated faction came back in 1906 and 
wrestled the state government away from 
their opponents, — Mr. Crawford defeating 
Mr. Elrod for re-nomination for governor. 

This was where A. B. Kittredge lost his 



104 BIOGRAPHY OF 



first prestige ; and it is due him to publish, as 
a part of his life record, the fact that he lost 
it against his own judgment. The contest be- 
tween the two factions was so close that one 
ward in Sioux Falls held the balance of pow- 
er. A change of six votes in that ward would 
have saved the state to Senator Kittredge's 
faction which was in power. He felt that 
his presence in the fight was an indispensable 
necessity and he wanted to come home and 
enter it ; but, unfortunately, ten of his friends 
— including the then Chairman of the state 
central committee — signed a telegram and 
sent it to him advising him to remain away — 
at his post in Washington. He objected, but 
he acted on their advice instead of in har- 
mony with the dictates of his own judgment. 
Had he returned to Sioux Falls in time, the 
lost ward would easily have been saved, his 
faction of the party would have remained in 
power, Congressman Martin who was a can- 
didate for the U. S. Senate would have been 
nominated, Mr. Burke would have been re- 
turned to Congress, Milton M. Ramer who 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 105 



had served less than a year by appointment 
as Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
would have succeeded himself in office, Gov- 
ernor Elrod would have been re-nominated, 
and A. B. Kittredge, two years later, would 
easily have been returned to the senate. But 
he remained away, and the fight was lost. 

If Mr. Crawford had not been nomina- 
ted and elected governor in 1906, he could not, 
in all probability, have won the senatorship 
fight in the republican primaries in the cam- 
paign two years later. He needed just the 
opportunity that the governorship gave him, 
a chance to build up a state-wide organiza- 
tion of his own. He builded it well, and in 
the campaign of 1908, he used it with telling 
effect. Although Senator Kittredge ran 
ahead of his ticket 5,000 votes, as measured 
by the accustomed standard— the vote for 
governor— he was, nevertheless, defeated by 
2,000 votes by Governor Crawford. 

The campaign, aside from the one in 
1896, was the hottest political fight in the 
state's history ; and for bitter personalities, it 



106 BIOGRAPHY OF 

greatly surpassed the campaign of '96. With 
all the harsh and painfully cruel things that 
were said about Senator Kittredge during the 
fight — things that he knew, and thousands of 
others should have known, were premeditated 
falsehoods, — not once did he wince under 
fire or make a single reply. It was one of 
the grandest examples of fortitude and manly 
courage that has ever been exhibited by any 
man in the state, or, indeed, within the na- 
tion. Right here a word is also due Governor 
Crawford for the awful gruelling which he, 
too, took during the campaign, without 
flinching, or instituting a libel suit to clear 
his record. The two principals refrained 
from this nefarious business, but some of 
their subordinates on the stump, as well as 
certain newspapers whose utterances they 
could not control, took liberties that have 
since been universally regretted. 

One day in May, during the fight, Sen- 
ator Kittredge and I took the train at Elkton 
for Watertown, over the Rock Island. He 
bought a Minneapolis Journal from the 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 107 



newsboy and began to read it; 1 bought a 
state daily paper. In it I saw where the edi- 
tor had published a most vicious and un- 
called-for attack on the Senator. After glanc- 
ing it over I handed it to him to read. He 
looked at the article casually, and then, hand- 
ing the paper back to me, said: "Really, I 
don't care what they say about me." And he 
meant it ! His great poise, his even temper 
and his good nature were a sort of "shock- 
absorber" for his friends during the whole 
campaign. Intuitively, one could not help 
but feel that the Senator had many things 
in common with Abraham Lincoln. The lat- 
ter, during the awful national crisis of 1861- 
65, when he was being maligned as no other 
man has ever been, said: 

"If I were to try to read, much less an- 
swer, all the attacks made on me, this shop 
(office) might as well be closed for any other 
business. I do the very best 1 know how— 
the very best I can ; and I mean to keep on 
doing so until the end. If the end brings 
me out all right, what is said against me 



108 BIOGRAPHY OF 

won't amount to anything. If the end brings 
me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was 
right would make no difference." 

This viewpoint of Senator Kittredge's 
self-containment is the view which the gen- 
eral public had of him. To them he was hard- 
shelled and entirely oblivious to the personal 
attacks made upon him. There are those, 
however, who were very close to him, that 
will challenge this point of view. Some 
think he was actually supersensitive, and 
that his apparent indifference was merely 
the outward show of his wonderful self-pos- 
session. 

Senator Kittredge opened the campaign 
at Mitchell, in February, in a speech that 
lasted two hours. It was free from animos- 
ity and replete in political argument. Thou- 
sands heard it; they were pleased. It was 
really a great speech. This started the fight. 
But Governor Crawford, himself an orator 
of national repute, took the firing line in per- 
son, as well as helping to manage the cam- 
paign, and poured forth volley after volley 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 109 



of relentless oratory that finally won him the 
fight. 

The following extracts from the speech 
as reported by the Mitchell Daily Republican 
are of note : 

"I have been charged with being insin- 
cere in my support of the policies of Presi- 
dent Roosevelt, and my motives have been 
questioned by my opponents in South Dako- 
ta in relation to my support of Secretary 
Taft. I cannot make my position stronger 
or plainer when I say I am heartily in favor 
of the policies of President Roosevelt and a 
continuation of the same. 

(Here he gave numerous reasons.) 

"On the first Monday in December, six 
years ago, I entered the Senate of the United 
States, and in that time I have made my rec- 
ord, and it is one that I am not afraid of, 
nor am I ashamed of it. Some mistakes have 
been made no doubt, but there is one thing 
the people of South Dakota can be absolutely 
certain of, that in preparing for the battle 
which is now approaching they need not 



110 BIOGRAPHY OF 

prepare the white-wash pot and brush for 
any act of mine, nor need they procure a 
man to apply it ! (Applause.) 

:J: %: ^ ^ ^ 

"In past years it has been discussed 
throughout the state by my opponents, and 
it is being talked of today, that my alleged 
position as attorney for the Milwaukee rail- 
road governed my actions as always being in 
favor of the railroads and that I was subser- 
vient to their interests. I can say without 
the least fear of successful contradiction that 
in all of the twenty-three years I have prac- 
ticed law in South Dakota no railroad nor any 
other corporation ever had the slightest hold 
on my services as a salaried or retained at- 
torney. * * * I have never accepted a retain- 
er from this railroad corporation, and my ev- 
ery transaction with the company was a com- 
pleted one when the case was finished. That 
company has paid me for my work just in 
the same manner that an individual would 
cancel an indebtedness to an attorney. At 
the time I assumed my duties as a United 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 111 

States senator, I informed the company that 
I would not accept any new cases from them, 
and to this day that statement has not been 
violated by me in the least. 
* * * * * 

"I am heartily in favor of enacting a 
law compelling the railroads to put into effect 
a two cent flat passenger rate and to lower 
freight rates. In the enactment of such a 
law, I would insist that the emergency clause 
be attached, so as to bring it to an issue at 
once." 

The Senator closed his part of the speak- 
ing campaign in a public address delivered 
at the auditorium in Sioux Falls on the even- 
ing of May 23, 1911. It was an occasion nev- 
er to be forgotten. Excursion trains had 
come to Sioux Falls from all over the state. 
Brass bands from numerous cities along the 
way had accompanied the excursionists. In 
the evening, a monster parade was held in 
Sioux Falls. Ten thousand voters from out- 
side of the city joined it. Bands were play- 
ing all along the line of march. Finally, the 



112 BIOGRAPHY OF 

parade broke up, and the city's populace, aug- 
mented by their thousands of visitors, lined 
up on both sides of Phillips avenue, from 
the Milwaukee depot south for a mile to the 
hill. 

Presently, about 8 :00 p. m., Senator Kit- 
tredge, accompanied by a few of his close 
friends, was driven down the avenue, be- 
tween these two restless lines of humanity. 
The enthusiasm knew no bounds. Men yelled 
as though they were crazed. Women waved 
their handkerchiefs and cried. Base drum- 
mers pounded their instruments until the tur- 
moil became deafening. The Senator bowed 
his acknowledgments times without number. 
It seemed as if the whole state had suddenly 
assembled in Sioux Falls ; that such a popular 
idol could not be defeated. 

The coachman drove him to the audito- 
rium ; the crowd followed. Only a small por- 
tion of them could get inside of the hall. 
Strangely, and yet naturally enough to those 
who knew him best, this was the first public 
speech that Senator Kittredge had ever de- 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 113 



livered in Sioux Falls. Everybody in the 
city, as well as those from outside of it, want- 
ed to hear him. 

It had often been said that he could not 
make a good public speech. This illusion 
was soon dispelled. Just after he had be- 
gun to speak, a woman stepped onto the plat- 
form and presented him with a magnificent 
"bouquet in behalf of the ladies of Sioux 
Falls." Stopping his regular speech, he turn- 
ed around and made a five-minute reply to 
her that was a perfect gem of classic literary 
beauty. It is too bad that this speech was 
not stenographed and preserved. 

Then he resumed his regular speech 
which lasted for two hours and twenty min- 
utes. He spoke entirely without manuscript 
or even notes. It was a great speech ; great 
in conception, in range, in argument and in 
presentation. His climaxes were punctured 
again and again with ear-bursting applause. 
During the address he did not mention his 
opponent or even allude to him by insinua- 
tion. It was a lawyer's argument on the 



114 BIOGRAPHY OF 

great questions that were up for solution in 
the United States senate, and of his attitude 
toward them. 

After the speech was over, the traveling 
men of the state gave him a banquet at the 
Cataract hotel. Ten brilliant toasts to the 
Senator were delivered by members of their 
organization. At the conclusion, he respond- 
ed for fifteen minutes. Here again his lan- 
guage was so chaste and so beautiful and 
flowed with such ease that all present must 
have marveled at the past silence of this most 
reticent of men. 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 115 



RE-ENTERS PRIVATE PRACTICE. 

He was defeated, nevertheless, on June 
9, following, by Governor Crawford. Having 
made a pre-campaign promise to abide by 
the decision of his party at the primaries, he 
did so religiously, and on the fourth of the 
following March, in 1909, he returned to 
Sioux Falls and took up again his chosen 
profession. His private practice — particu- 
larly in corporation cases — soon became so 
large that he could scarcely handle it. 

At various times before he was sent to 
the senate he had acted as chief counsel in 
large cases for various railroad companies 
for a stated fee, but never on a salary. It 
was for this reason, during the memorable 
campaign which caused his defeat, that his 
opponents referred to him as a "corporation 
hireling," forgetful, at the very time, that 
those who were opposing him either were or 
had been corporation employees. This was 



116 BIOGRAPHY OF 

no discredit to him, although it cost him a 
great many votes ; for large corporations, like 
railroad companies, with thousands of dollars 
at stake, do not employ mediocre attorneys 
to handle these big cases when they go into 
court. They secure the best lawyers that 
money can hire : this is why they employed A. 
B. Kittredge. 

However, after his return to private 
practice, individuals having large damage 
suits against the railroad companies, em- 
ployed him more than did the companies 
themselves. His natural inclination was to- 
ward the common people. One illustration 
is given : In the case of Whaley et al v Vidal 
et al (Northwestern Reporter 132, pps. 242- 
248), the same being an action brought 
against the Milwaukee Railway company for 
damages for three orphan children whose 
parents were both killed on a railway cross- 
ing within the city of Flandreau, this state, 
Senator Kittredge appeared for the plaintiff. 
He secured a verdict in favor of the orphans 
of $11,500 for the death of their father and 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 117 

of $10,500 for the death of their mother; 
total, $22,000. The railroad company made 
application for a new trial. Senator Kit- 
tredge opposed it in the circuit court and he 
won. They appealed the application to the 
state supreme court. Senator Kittredge ap- 
peared before that body in a re-argument of 
the case, and again he won. 

(At the time of going to press I am told 
that he refused to accept a fee for his serv- 
ices in this case. — The Author.) 



CHAPTER VI. 

SUMMONED BEFORE HIGHER COURT. 

DEATH AND BURIAL. EULOGIZED. RESOLU- 
TIONS OF BAR ASSOCIATION. 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 119 



DEATH AND BURIAL. 

In October, 1910, a year and a half af- 
ter his retirement from the senate, while 
returning to his office in Sioux Falls, after 
trying a hard-fought case in the local court 
at that place, during which he had become 
very greatly heated, he took a severe cold. It 
settled in the weakest one of his vital organs 
— his liver, which, although unknown alike to 
himself and to his friends, had already begun 
to atrophy. 

The next day he complained about a pain 
in his side. It was the first complaint about 
his physical condition that his friends had 
ever heard him make. Daily, he grew worse 
instead of better. So he started back to his 
old boyhood haunts among the New England 
hills for a rest. In Chicago, in New York, 
and again in Boston, he consulted specialists. 
Each of them told him the same thing, to-wit : 
that there was nothing chronic about his ail- 



120 BIOGRAPHY OF 

ment and that he was merely suffering from 
an attack of La Grippe. 

At the beginning of the New Year, he re- 
turned to Sioux Falls where, almost imme- 
diately, he became bedfast in his room at the 
hotel. Dr. Ollney diagnosed his trouble as 
Atrophic Cirrhosis of the liver and gave him 
the best treatment for his ailment known 
to the medical profession. Too late! 

It availed but little ; and so on February 
18, accompanied by Charles Wuest, Col. Dick 
Woods and William Donohue, he went to Hot 
Springs, Arkansas, to take baths. At first 
he improved, and his Sioux Falls associates 
returned home, entertaining great hopes for 
his recovery. But on April 24, they received 
a telegram saying that his condition had be- 
come alarming. P. J. Rogde, E. B. Northrup, 
C. M. Day and Dr. R. F. Brown started at 
once for his bedside. 

They found him in a semi-conscious con- 
dition. He rallied enough to recognize them 
for a moment, and he called Mr. Day by 
name; then he relapsed into a state of coma 




His Last Photo 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 121 

from which he never recovered. His friends 
remained with him until May 3 ; but on that 
morning they gave up hopes, and all of them 
except Mr. Day, departed for home. 

That day the Associated Press had this 
to say : 

"Hot Springs, May 3 — Noon — Senator Kittredge 
is losing his brave fight, and his friends in South 
Dakota must soon expect the news of his death. His 
aged father in New England has been told of the 
probable outcome, and he has sent in reply a brave 
message." 

On the morning of May 4, Charles M. 
Day started for home. Shortly thereafter, 
Senator Kittredge's brother who was at his 
bedside, sent to the Daily Argus-Leader this 
telegram : 

"Kittredge has been unconsicious during the 
past forty-eight hours and passed a restless night. 
His heart action is still strong, but is gradually 
growing weaker. His death is now but a question 
of a few hours only." 

That evening, May 4, 1911, the Associa- 
ted Press flashed this dispatch to the news- 
papers of the state: 



122 BIOGRAPHY OF 

"Senator Kittredge died quietly this evening at 
11:30." 

Immediately the whole state went into 
mourning. 

His faithful nurse was the only one with 
him at the moment that the end came, al- 
though, in an adjoining room, wrapped in 
uncontrollable grief, were his only brother, 
Prof. H .W. Kittredge, of Westfield, Massa- 
chusetts, and one of his two sisters, Mrs. C. 
P. Pearson, of Gardner, Massachusetts. 

The next day his brother and sister 
started with the remains for the old home and 
family burial lot at East Jaffrey, New Hamp- 
shire. Mr. Day had gotten as far as Colum- 
bia, Missouri, on his return trip home when 
he received a telegram from Hot Springs an- 
nouncing the death of the Senator. He also 
received a telegram at Columbia from the 
Elk's Lodge at Sioux Falls, asking him to ac- 
company the remains to their final resting 
place as a representative of that order; for 
Senator Kittredge was not only a charter 
member of the Sioux Falls Elks, but he was 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 123 



the first Exalted Ruler of that lodge. Like- 
wise, the Masons, in which he had been a 
former Worshipful Master, despatched Rob- 
ert Beattie, at that time Master of their Blue 
lodge, to represent them at the funeral in 
New Hampshire. The Minnehaha County 
Bar association sent Attorney E. R. Winans, 
and they also sent Judge Jones to represent 
the local courts. They were joined at East 
Jaffrey by Senator Kittredge's life-long 
friends, Congressman Burke, and by Mr. R. 
S. Person, formerly auditor for the interior 
department during Mr. Kittredge's senatorial 
regime. These gentlemen became the honor- 
ary pall-bearers. 

The Senator's funeral sermon was 
preached at 2:00 p. m., on May 8, by the 
Reverend G. H. Flint, pastor of the Congre- 
gational church at Dorchester, Massachu- 
setts, there being no local pastor at East 
Jaffrey. He paid an eloquent tribute to the 
sterling qualities of the deceased; and he 
commented pointedly on the fact that a man 
whose mourners came from nearly across 



124 BIOGRAPHY OF 

the continent, must have made some deep 
and abiding friendships during his life. 

On the afternoon of the funeral the 
weather was ideal, and the citizens of East 
Jaffrey turned out en masse. The quiet 
farm lad who had strolled leisurely through 
their quaint streets as a boy, had returned 
to them — great in death as well as in life! 

Floral tributes came from far and near. 
The famous Grid-Iron Club of Washington, 
D. C, with which Senator Kittredge was de- 
cidedly popular, sent a monster wreath. 
Large bouquets came from the Elks, the 
Masons, the Shriners, the Woodmen of the 
World, and the Redmen, of Sioux Falls, — in 
all of which lodges the distinguished Senator 
was a prominent member. Congressmen 
Martin and Burke, Mr. Person and George 
R. Jones contributed a magnificent floral em- 
blem. After the service, a wagon load of 
costly wreathes were heaped upon his grave. 

And there, 

"Under the sod and the dew, 
Waiting the judgment day," 




^ 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 125 

in the language of Mrs. Browning, 

"His eyeballs lie quenched with the weight of his 
brows." 
Well might his relatives have had in- 
scribed on his tombstone this beautiful epi- 
taph written by William Wilde in 1763 : 
"Here lies a piece of Life; a star in dust; 
A vein of gold; a china dish that must 
Be used in heaven, when God shall feast the 
just." 
His living friends in South Dakota, as 
well as the succeeding generation, will re- 
gret that he could not have been buried in 
the state he so greatly honored. 

He left to mourn his loss, his aged fath- 
er, Russell H. Kittredge, of East Jaffrey, 
New Hampshire; his brother, Prof. H. W. 
Kittredge, of Westfield ; one sister, Mrs. Fan- 
ny Pearson, of Gardner, and another sister, 
Mrs. Mary Hall, of Wakefield,— the last 
three places all being in Massachusetts. In 
addition to these the State of South Dakota 
and much of the nation became his mourners. 



126 BIOGRAPHY OF 



EULOGIZED. 

The day of his death, the Daily Argus- 
Leader, in a full-column eulogy of him, said, 
among other things : 

"Senator Kittredge was a man of heroic 
mould. He was best appreciated by those 
who were his most intimate friends. Only 
to those did this quiet and unassuming man 
reveal the real gold of his character. 

"Here was a man who will not soon be 
forgotten. He was strong in every sense 
of the word— clear in intellect, firm in friend- 
ship, religious in instinct, conscientious in 
the performance of a duty — a great, strong, 
true-blue, broad-shouldered soul — one whose 
like we shall not soon see again." 

Ex-Governor Sam Elrod, of Clark, South 
Dakota, sent to the press of the state this 
communication : 

"Kittredge was one of the truest men I 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 127 



have ever known ; one of the first lawyers of 
ability in the state, and the ablest man that 
has thus far represented South Dakota at 
Washington. He was absolutely honest, 
modest as a child and clean in thought and 
character. No friend ever applied to him for 
help in vain, as will be seen by the following 
incident: During the panic of 1893, on a 
Saturday evening, it was found that a certain 
bank in South Dakota could not open on the 
following morning unless a large sum of cash 
could be raised. For several days the offi- 
cers of the bank had done everything within 
their power to raise enough money to en- 
able them to keep the bank open. When it 
was found that it could not open again, two 
of the officers went across country to Sioux 
Falls. They called Kittredge up in the night 
and stated the facts to him. He knew where 
money was, and he got it for them; but he 
had to put up his own note and secure it by 
assigning his life insurance." 

The Vermillion Republican (E. W. Wil- 
ley, editor) said on May 11 : 



128 BIOGRAPHY OF 



"In senatorial deliberations, he easily 
earned and won the distinction of being 
South Dakota's most distinguished states- 
man. He was often styled the 'silent man,' 
but even his silence was little if any less than 
the incarnation of eloquence. 
***** 

"Today he sleeps in the village cemetery 
of the little New Hampshire town of Jaffrey, 
but his memory will remain as enduring as 
the granite of which are composed the en- 
circling hills that will keep watch above his 
place of rest. For happily, and most surely, 
his work in every way was a credit to the 
state of his nativity as well as to that of his 
adoption, and the honor becomes the heritage 
of the nation." 

E. W. Caldwell, of Sioux City, Iowa, 
commonly known as "Happy Cal" had this to 
say of him in the Sioux City Journal of 

May 5 : 

"There are few men in Dakota whose 
death would bring so many tears to the eyes 
of men and women as the taking off of A. B. 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 129 

Kittredge will bring. Whatever may have 
been his power in general business, or in his 
profession as a lawyer, or in politics, he was 
still stronger in his personal relations and in 
those qualities which attract the cordial es- 
teem and affectionate regard of men, women 
and children ; and so it will be in the homes of 
South Dakota, not only in Sioux Falls, but in 
many other localities, that he will be the most 
tenderly missed, where for so many years he 
was accustomed to drop in as 'one of the 
family, and to romp with the children, if 
there were any, and to fondle the babv in 
his arms. A confirmed bachelor who per- 
haps never in his whole life had an 'affair 
of the heart,' he had a most chivalric regard 
for women, and he was 'Uncle Kit' to multi- 
tudes of youngsters. So, however profound 
may be the regret of business or oi politics 
that their affairs should know him no more 
forever, there will be keener sorrow among 
those who never knew him either in busi- 
ness or in politics. 

"One of the institutions of Sioux Falls 



130 BIOGRAPHY OF 

and of South Dakota was Mr. Kittredge's 
handsomely furnished suite of bachelor 
apartments where for nearly a quarter of a 
century he kept 'open house' year in and 
year out, and which were visited by multi- 
plied thousands from every portion of the 
commonwealth, and by legions of men, emi- 
nent and otherwise, from outside the state. 
While of course the apartments became a 
sort of political headquarters, this was not 
the prime spirit that maintained them. They 
were rather the manifestation of that gener- 
ous hospitality characteristic of the man, and 
of a desire for a place that might be to him 
like a home. 

"In the whirligig of partisan and fac- 
tional politics in South Dakota, there came a 
time when I and my paper were arrayed 
against 'the Kittredge crowd,' and I pub- 
lished stuff against him then which now I 
wish most heartily could be expunged. As 
usual, after the panic of 1893, my paper be- 
came financially embarassed, and I was plan- 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 131 



ning against the day when Kittredge should 
swoop down and oust me, as I feared he 
might be able to do. He heard about my at- 
tempted manipulations, and sent me word I 
needn't be scared, and that if I needed help 
to let him know. 

"One Saturday afternoon, after I had 
exhausted every other means to complete the 
payroll, I borrowed $250 from him, rather 
than shut up shop, which otherwise I would 
have been compelled to do. When I went to 
return the money, he said to me: 'Cal, you 
don't owe me a cent. Just accept that as 
my contribution toward maintaining a rat- 
tling good newspaper in Sioux Falls, and a 
booster for the town.' 



"There are those who will say that his 
death has been hastened by his defeat. I 
do not believe him to be a man to succumb to 
depression from any such circumstances. 
Men, who have won, have died, as he has died, 
who lost. He was too nervy a player in the 



132 BIOGRAPHY OF 

game of politics to go down and out simply 
because he didn't win." 

The Canton (S. D.) News, in its editor- 
ial review of his life cited some pertinent 
historical facts as follows : 

"It is notable that one line of the Uni- 
ted States senatorship from South Dakota has 
been followed by singular fatality. Colonel 
Moody, at statehood, drew the short term. 
He was not re-elected, and is long since dead. 
Moody was succeeded by Kyle, who served 
one term ; was re-elected and died in office. 
Kittredge followed Kyle, but failed of re- 
election, and, broken in health, he, too, has 
passed away." 

The following beautiful eulogy is clipped 
from the Sioux City Journal (Hon. George 
D. Perkins — deceased — editor) : 

"He slept his life away, and that was 
merciful to him and to those who loved him. 
At the last, one deep breath, and the cord 
that bound him to this mortal life was sev- 
ered. He died as he had lived — the 'silent 
man' — the uncomplaining man, the man who 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 133 



in every conscious hour was thoughtful of 
his friends. 

"Mr. Kittredge was a great man, and he 
was great in what men call little things. He 
was a welcome guest, and he was delightful 
as a host. Among those with whom he was 
associated and with whom he was in rela- 
tion, he was never a burden, but always a 

help. 

***** 

"His reputation as the 'silent man' grew 
out of his remarkable containment, the 
strength of his character, the rectitude of 
his purposes and the unceasing courage of 
his life. He was in no sense brazen ; he was 
in every sense modest. Yet he had rare gift 
in influencing the men about him, for he 
knew men both in their weakness and in their 
strength. 

"Following his retirement to private 
life, he was the same contained man. If there 
was expression of bitterness, he was not the 
author of it. He bound his friends to him 
because he was true, because he vaunted not 



134 BIOGRAPHY OF 

himself, because he was never parted from 
the excellence of his disposition; because in 
all his good works — the small generosities 
and kindnesses that count so much in help- 
fulness — his left hand was kept stranger to 
what his right hand was doing. 

"Those who did not know him, who 
never shared in the comfort and security 
of the inner chambers of his being, believing 
what is here set down, can well believe that 
he was a sincere man, a master of himself, 
and free from all ostentation." 

The Daily Huronite ( W. S. Bowen, edit- 
or) devoted a full column to his good deeds. 
Among other commendatory things it said : 

"In the death of Senator Kittredge 
South Dakota loses one of its foremost citi- 
zens, and the nation a sturdy citizen who 
served it well. 

* =!.- * * * 

"He was a forceful character, and 
among men he early became a leader. His 
home friends are legion, and the quality of 
their devotion is that which is not habitually 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 135 



bestowed upon a human being. With gen- 
eral unanimity the people of the state will 
bow their heads in grief over the visitation 
that has taken him from them in the midst 
of the period of his greatest usefulness. 

:j: * * * ♦ 

"A strong man has laid down the burden 
of life. His memory will be cherished until 
those from whom he has departed rejoin him 
in that other realm." 

Professor Will Chamberlain, of South 
Dakota, in his "Wayside Notes" in the Sioux 
City Journal of May 14, said: 

"When Grover Cleveland died, and prep- 
arations were being made to express the 
nation's loss, a committee, including the poet 
editor of the Century Magazine, Richard 
Watson Gilder, chose as the memorial poem, 
Wordworth's 'Character of the Happy War- 
rior' (Nelson). It would not be inappro- 
priate to declare that this classic depicts 
many characteristics of Senator Alfred B. 
Kittredge, news of whose death is fresh on 



136 BIOGRAPHY OF 



all lips. He was identical in type with 
Grover Cleveland." 

if: % ^c ^ ;j: 

And again in the same set of "Notes," 
under the sub-head of "Friendship," he con- 
tinues : 

"Observers by the wayside of life have 
just had a glimpse of a record of friendship 
at Sioux Falls, South Dakota, that is seldom 
duplicated. I refer to that which existed be- 
tween the late Alfred Beard Kittredge and 
Charles M. Day, editor of the Sioux Falls 
Daily Argus-Leader. Mr. Day put aside all 
of his important newspaper labors and re- 
mained in the Arkansas valley of vapors with 
Mr. Kittredge until the distinguished states- 
man was entering death's shadow. Subse- 
quently, he attended the funeral in the far- 
off hills of New Hampshire and beheld the 
mortal body laid away amidst the boyhood 
scenes of his friend. Fidelity and Friendship 
are beautiful words. Mr. Day has exempli- 
fied them both." 

Parker New Era (Charles F. Hackett, 
editor) : 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 137 



"A. B. Kittredge was a brave, sturdy, 
brainy man ; a great lawyer and a wise coun- 
sellor; big hearted, and as true as steel in 
his friendship. Dear old 'Kit!' How deeply 
his friends loved him and trusted him. His 
greatest assets were his self-control, his loy- 
alty to duty and to his friends." 

Pierre Daily Dakotan (Hon. Tom Rob- 
erts, formerly Senator Kittredge's private 
secretary, editor) : 

"During those seven years we learned to 
love him as a child loves its father. The 
confidential relations between us were as 
close as it was possible to have them, and his 
life, both private and public, was known by 
the writer probably better than by anyone 
else in the state. Looking over those seven 
years, it is now brought more forcibly to our 
mind than ever what a magnificent man he 
was. Maligned as no other man in the state 
has ever been, he bore it uncomplainingly 
with that quiet reserve that too often caused 
men to misjudge him. The best years of his 
life were given to the state ; and his work, 



138 BIOGRAPHY OF 

honest, careful and tireless, was rewarded 
by his political enemies spreading false re- 
ports about him that defeated him for the 
senate. He bore it with that fortitude which 
has always been characteristic of the man. 

"There is no question in the mind of the 
writer about his future. His life was spot- 
less. Not one act, during the time we were 
with him, did he perform that would not 
bear the light of day." 

Springfield (Mass.) Republican: 
"Former Senator Kittredge, of South 
Dakota, whose death occurred Thursday, was 
a credit not only to the state which he repre- 
sented but also to New Hampshire, where he 
was born. His service in the senate was 
marked by industry and sturdy independence 
of opinion. He and former President Roose- 
velt came into sharp collision on the subject 
of the type of the Panama canal. While Kit- 
tredge was careful in abstaining from pub- 
lic criticism of Roosevelt the senator's 
friends were aware of his strong feeling that 
Roosevelt, after having himself first favored 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 139 

a sea level canal, was wholly unjustified in 
demanding that Kittredge should abruptly 
change and support a lock canal. Kittredge 
who was chairman of the senate committee, 
had come to believe in a sea level canal after 
giving the subject great study, and from that 
opinion no pressure could budge him. Wheth- 
er he was right or wrong on the question of 
type, he undoubtedly was better informed 
about the canal in a general way than any 
other member of the senate and he was firm 
in his belief that time would vindicate his 
views that a sea level canal would be the best 
and, in the end, the cheapest." 

The Sioux Falls Daily Press, one of the 
large daily papers in his home city that had 
for years fought him in politics, and which 
was largely responsible for his defeat, said 
of him in part: 

"In the death of former Senator Kit- 
tredge at Hot Springs, Thursday night, 
South Dakota loses a distinguished citizen 
who won a prominent place in national af- 
fairs, and thereby helped to bring this state 



140 BIOGRAPHY OF 

into prominence in official circles in Wash- 
ington. Senator Kittredge was distinctly a 
conservative in politics. He was for many- 
years the chief adviser and leader of the re- 
publican party in South Dakota. He was 
the head of the organization. 

"In the campaign of 1908, Mr. Kittredge 
was a candidate for re-election as United 
States senator, and he had for his opponent 
Governor Coe I. Crawford. Mr. Kittredge re- 
alized that he was in the midst of a fight for 
his political life and he lost. The campaign 
was especially noteworthy in that it was the 
first time that his voice had ever been heard 
in convention or on the stump in this or any 
other state. He has long borne the name of 
the 'Silent Senator,' because of the fact that 
he not only declined to speak in public, but 
seldom talked for newspaper interviews. In 
that campaign he surprised even his friends 
by his ability as a speaker and the apparent 
ease with which he succeeded as a forceful 
speaker." 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 141 



Aberdeen Daily News (J. T. Sanders, 
editor) : 

"Alfred B. Kittredge, of Sioux Falls, 
who died at Hot Springs, Arkansas, last 
night, will be mourned throughout the state 
as few have ever been mourned. 

"His death is a loss irretrievable to this 
state, because his equal as a man and a 
statesman cannot be equalled from north to 
south or from east to west. 

"Thousands will mourn him as a brother 
— a big brother he was to all who enjoyed his 
confidence — and there is none who can take 
his place. As long as the men of this gener- 
ation survive, his name will be enshrined, 
and wherever these men foregather his pres- 
ence will be with them. 

"May his great soul find rest in the 
realm in which it has joined other great souls 
that have gone before !" 

Dead wood Pioneer Times (W. H. Bon- 
ham, editor) : 

"His career in the senate was a brilliant 
one, and he was recognized as one of the 



142 BIOGRAPHY OF 

great men of that body. His knowledge of 
the French claims to the Panama route for 
the inter-oceanic canal, gained after hard 
study and a thorough investigation, made 
him an authority on that subject, and his ad- 
vice was sought by the president and the 
senate. He was made chairman of the senate 
committee on Panama canal, and its legal 
adviser in all matters pertaining to the 
French claims. His career in the senate 
was such that a brilliant future was pre- 
dicted for him, and his close friendship with 
President Roosevelt and the confidence 
which the president accorded him made him 
one of the most influential members of the 
upper house of Congress." 

The Deutscher-Herold, Sioux Falls, 
(Hans Demuth, editor) : 

"Ex-Senator A. B. Kittredge is suffer- 
ing no longer; death has mercifully relieved 
him, and all that is mortal in him is now 
resting in sweet repose in the cool native 
soil of New Hampshire. 

"In him a man of his own kind, an emi- 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 143 

nently able attorney and highly respected 
politician has departed this life. 

"No one, not even his most bitter antag- 
onist, has ever dared to charge our dear 
departed friend with dishonesty, incapacity 
or low political tricks, nor was there ever a 
reason for such. 

"The departed senator was a 'sticker.' 
He stuck inflexibly to a plan, carefully con- 
sidered and deemed just and right. He stuck 
inflexibly to his party and to his friends. He 
was an indefatigable worker and disdained 
strenuously to be lionized by 'society'. He 
worked from early morn to late at night, no 
errand was too difficult to serve his friends, 
no errand too far, no difference whether at 
home at Sioux Falls or at the National Capi- 
tal. 

"The private life of the dear departed 
was a pure one. He was an attorney very 
much sought for, who hardly ever lost a 
case. The competence which he acquired 
he made use of in a good and noble manner. 
He never refused an appeal for aid from 
friend or foe. 



144 BIOGRAPHY OF 



"Whoever had been a real friend of the 
deceased, remained so after his defeat, a 
friend of Kittredge as a 'man.' Many a young 
man owes the good position he holds to the 
senator's aid, rendered in his own quiet and 
unassuming manner. 

"This was Kittredge. 

"When his serious condition became 
known, a flood of telegrams arrived at his 
bedside and when the wire announced his 
death a feeling akin to nightmare oppressed 
the hearts of his friends and all who had en- 
joyed the privilege of his immediate ac- 
quaintance. 

"Kittredge is no more, but his memory 
will never grow dim, and the whole state has 
just cause to mourn for his untimely de- 
mise." 

Mitchell Daily Republican (W. R. Ron- 
ald, editor) : 

"All of South Dakota mourns the loss 
of A. B. Kittredge. Cut off in the very prime 
of life, he was denied many years of useful- 
ness to his home city and his state. It is 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 145 

unnecessary to say that Senator Kittredge 
was one of the most distinguished sons of 
South Dakota. * * * His ability as an at- 
torney not only brought him professional 
success, but led him into the field of politics, 
with the result that upon him was bestowed 
the highest office in the gift of the state. 
* * * * * 
"Senator Kittredge was a man of few 
words, thereby evidencing his careful judg- 
ment. His earnestness and concentration in 
all that he did, together with his own respect 
for his own promises, won for him great 
respect on the part of the people of South 
Dakota." 



Avon Clarion: "What South Dakotan 
can measure up?" 



Spearfish Mail: "His service to the 
state and nation will stand as a monument 
which will survive all time." 



Carthage News : "He was one of South 



146 BIOGRAPHY OF 

Dakota's favorite sons and in his death the 
state has lost a citizen whose place will not 
soon be filled." 



Alexandria Herald: "His death is an 
irreparable blow to South Dakota, and to 
his legion of friends throughout the state it 
caused deep and genuine sorrow." 



Big Stone Headlight: "His death will 
be mourned by many, and as his public ser- 
vices recede into history they will be more 
and more appreciated by South Dakotans." 



Hudsonite : "He was loved and honored 
and appreciated more than he knew and his 
demise has put a whole state into sincere 
mourning, and his loss will be keenly felt in 
South Dakota." 



Faulkton Advocate: "In the state at 
large he was always a commanding figure 
even after he was deprived of power by the 
supremacy of the progressive wing of the 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 147 

party. A great and able man has passed 
away." 



Alcester Union: "Mr. Kittredge served 
eight years as senator from South Dakota 
and during that time became a figure of na- 
tional prominence. He was conservative in 
politics and his fellow senators had great 
confidence in his judgment and information 
on public affairs." 



Scotland Citizen-Republican : "His 
staunchest friends were found among those 
who knew him best, and in his public service 
which extended over a quarter of a century, 
his strongest opponents do not question his 
great ability nor discredit the services that 
he rendered his state and nation." 



Turner County Herald: "His intimate 
friends loved him and were intensely loyal 
to him and perhaps if his diffidence had not 
prevented his taking the public into his confi- 
dence all might have seen him as his friends 



148 BIOGRAPHY OF 



saw him. But he made no place for popu- 
larity, espoused no reform movements, kept 
his face to his foes, and went down to defeat, 
smiling, courageous and strong." 



Pierre Capital-Journal : "As is usual 
death will no doubt serve to give him greater 
credit than was ever accorded him during 
life. His life was such that his friends 
can always feel proud of having been counted 
among those in whom he confided." 



Clark County Courier: "Mr. Kittredge 
was a man in the very best and truest sense 
of the word. Too quiet and unassuming to 
be a practical politician, he went down in 
political defeat, but will be remembered as a 
true statesman who stood for what he be- 
lieved to be right regardless of personal con- 
sequences. Time itself cannot erase the 
memories of Senator Kittredge. In very 
truth he was a statesman, a friend and a 
man." 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 149 

Lake Preston Times: "Ex-Senator Kit- 
tredge was a great man, perhaps the most 
distinguished resident of South Dakota. He 
had a great brain and he accomplished things 
without any spread-eagle flourish. He was 
not selfish, as his enemies pictured, but he 
proved a little too cold to be as successful as 
he would otherwise have been in politics. He 
occupied a position while senator that it will 
be difficult for another from this state to 
soon reach in national affairs, and his opin- 
ion and judgment counted with the author- 
ities in Washington." 



Iroquois Chief (J. F. Halladay, editor) : 
This writer considers himself extremely for- 
tunate in having had the friendship of Sena- 
tor Kittredge and of having worked with him 
in matters political. He congratulates him- 
self upon the fact that he has been a support- 
er of this worthy man. To be referred to 
as a 'Kittredge lieutenant,' is to fill the breast 
with pride. He has gone and the people of 
an entire state mourn. His place will be 



150 BIOGRAPHY OF 



hard to fill. True friends drop a tear and 
even those who hurled the shafts of envy and 
malice in times of political excitement mourn 
the untimely death of Alfred Beard Kit- 
tredge, South Dakota's foremost citizen and 
greatest statesman." 



Des Moines Capital: "Former Senator 
Kittredge of South Dakota died not many 
days ago and his body was taken back to a 
New England state for burial. The deceased 
was fifty years of age and was noted for the 
things he did and not the things he said. He 
was a man of deeds, not words. He was 
sometimes called the silent man. The news- 
paper reporters could get nothing out of him. 
He was a standpatter during his lifetime and 
received lots of abuse. Since his death he 
has received much praise." 



Aberdeen Daily American: "In the 
death of Senator Kittredge, South Dakota 
has lost one of the most brilliant men who 
ever mingled in public life. * * * In 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 151 

this hour all partisanship and factionalism 
are forgotten in the sorrow sweeping the en- 
tire state in the passing of Kittredge, and 
his memory will be treasured in South Dako- 
ta for years to come." 



152 BIOGRAPHY OF 



RESOLUTIONS OF BAR ASSOCIATION. 

"The Bar of Minnehaha County has 
commissioned and directed the undersigned 
to prepare an appropriate expression of its 
sorrow in the loss of a distinguished member, 
the Honorable Alfred Beard Kittredge; also 
to pay a fitting tribute to his life, character 
and service, and requested the court to make 
proper record of the same. 

"It has been well said that a community, 
state or nation, is known by its great men. 
In Senator Kittredge were combined the 
rugged strength of character so typical of 
his native state, together with the breadth 
of view, liberality of thought, and power for 
growth and expansion, which are character- 
istic of the great Northwest. 

(Herefrom is omitted an able review of 
his record as a senator). 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 153 

"As a lawyer, he was remarkable for his 
conservatism and caution in giving advice, 
for diligent research and unstinted labor in 
the preparation of his cases, and for clear- 
ness and thoroughness in argument. His 
learning was profound and covered the whole 
field of jurisprudence. His style as an advo- 
cate was forcible and convincing, rather than 
ornate and showy. His methods of attack 
and defense were straightforward and stub- 
born, rather than ingenious and crafty. 
While he was devoted to the interests of his 
clients, his cool and excellent judgment was 
never carried away by professional partisan- 
ship ; and this characteristic made him a safe 
and invaluable adviser, rather than an en- 
thusiastic and sympathetic advocate. 

"Both in public and in private life, Sen- 
ator Kittredge was distinguished for his 
personal integrity, his sincerity and stead- 
fastness of purpose, his fidelity to the prin- 
ciples in which he believed, and loyalty to his 
friends. 



154 BIOGRAPHY OF 

"Blemishes of character and conduct 
will be revealed in political contests, if any- 
where, and it is therefore regarded as worthy 
of more than passing notice that he came 
through the fiercest political strife in the 
history of our state unscathed in character 
and unsullied in reputation and personal 
honor. 

* * * * * 

"We, therefore, bear testimony to the 
worth, work and achievements of our de- 
ceased brother. To his father, brother and 
sisters, we extend our heartfelt sympathy in 
their bereavement; but we know that the 
memory of his life and character will remain 
with them and be a source of pride and com- 
fort when the keen edge of sorrow shall 
have been dulled by time." 
Committee : 

Charles P. Bates 

R. H. Warren 

Tore Tiegen" 



156 BIOGRAPHY OF 



CHAPTER VII. 
PERMANENTLY HONORED. 

HIS MARBLE BUST. LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 

ABEL'S SPEECH. MEMORIAL COMMENTS. 

ADDRESSES OF JUDGE DICK HANEY, 

JOHN T. KEAN AND C. M. DAY. 

BUST UNVEILED. OIL PAINTINGS. 

OTHER HONORS. 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 157 



HIS MARBLE BUST. 

Doctor M. E. Walton, of Huron, secre- 
tary of the South Dakota Republican Primary 
organization, on May 10, 1911, sent to the 
Daily Argus-Leader of Sioux Falls, a lengthy 
communication which was published by that 
paper in full, suggesting the creation of a 
fund with which to erect a memorial tablet 
to the memory of Senator Kittredge. His 
closing paragraphs were as follows : 

"As one who feels that he, too, has lost 
a friend, the writer would respectfully sug- 
gest that a subscription be raised over the 
state, by the friends of the late A. B. Kit- 
tredge, for the purpose of erecting to him a 
suitable memorial tablet. Let the amount 
be raised through the medium of small sums 
preferably, so that all who wish may have a 
part in the undertaking. 

"Let the tablet be placed in some con- 
spicuous place as a symbol of the presence of 



158 BIOGRAPHY OF 

one who, though gone forever, has meant so 
much to the life of Sioux Falls and the state 
of South Dakota. 

"Enclosed find $5 for the purpose men- 
tioned, with the hope that the movement 
will appeal to all." 

This published suggestion of Dr. Wal- 
ton's elicited state-wide comment. There 
were no opponents to the plan ; all favored it. 
The history of the transaction, from this 
point on, is admirably told by Mr. Day in his 
speech delivered at the unveiling of the me- 
morial, published in full herein; hence the 
omission here. 

There is one feature of the matter, how- 
ever, that has not as yet been made public. 
The response of the Senator's friends was 
greater than was anticipated, and far more 
funds were raised than were necessary. 
Senator Kittredge, for reasons known only 
to himself, never married, and was, there- 
fore, childless; yet, nevertheless, he dearly 
loved children. As we go to press the sur- 
plus fund raised for his marble bust is being 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 159 

used to equip a room in the Children's Home 
in Sioux Falls, to be known as the "Kittredge 
room." 

Instead of erecting a tablet as suggested 
by Dr. Walton, the committee of nine which 
had been appointed to look after the matter 
decided to procure a marble bust of the Sen- 
ator; and to place the same in one of the 
alcoves of our state capitol at Pierre, di- 
rectly opposite the life-sized marble statue 
of General Beadle. 

Memorial exercises in review of his life 
and for the unveiling of the bust occurred in 
the city of Pierre, January 15, 1913. The 
state legislature was in session. Both hous- 
es united in executive session, and the exer- 
cises were conducted before them in the room 
occupied by the house of representatives. 
Lieutenant Governor E. L. Abel, of Huron, 
by virtue of his official position, presided 
over the deliberations. 

The music for the occasion was fur- 
nished by a male quartet consisting of Harry 
Quackenbush, Stanley Stevenson, Ralph 



160 BIOGRAPHY OF 

Longstaff and Leslie Parry ; and by a ladies' 
quartet composed of the Misses Hunkins, 
Fox, Campbell and Lewis. 

Lieutenant-Governor Abel, in opening 
the exercises, said : 

"Members of the Legislature and my fel- 
low citizens : 

"Far to the east, where first the rising 
sun casts its rays upon this continent, on one 
of the beautiful hillsides of New England, 
lies all that was mortal of our departed) 
friend, Alfred B. Kittredge. His spirit has 
left its tenement of clay, but still it walks 
abroad, for truly great men never die, but 
continue to live in the memory and affections 
of their friends, and in the history of their 
country. The good they have done marches 
down the corridors of time brightening the 
dark pathways of the future, — a lamp to 
guide the footsteps of succeeding genera- 
tions. All the history of any state or coun- 
try that is really worth while is the biogra- 
phy of its great men. To them it owes its 
life, its power and its growth, and that 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 161 

country or state, which fails to properly per- 
petuate, honor and reverence the memory of 
its great men is destined to lag behind and be 
beaten in the great race for social, political 
and commercial supremacy. It is well that 
we meet today to perpetuate the memory of 
our departed friend by appropriate exercises 
and by placing his marble bust in a niche in 
our Capitol, where, so long as these walls 
shall last, it shall remain to remind posterity 
that this state is not unmindful of the great 
services rendered it by its distinguished 
statesman, and that under our form of gov- 
ernment the humblest boy may aspire to the 
greatest honors a state can confer upon a 
citizen. 

"This magnificent assemblage, drawn 
from every nook and corner of our great 
state, and filling to overflowing all the space 
of this vast chamber, testifies more eloquent- 
ly than words the high esteem in which the 
people of South Dakota held the services of 
our lamented Senator and their desire to 
properly perpetuate the memory of South 
Dakota's greatest statesman. 



162 BIOGRAPHY OF 

% "I must be brief, for there are others to 
speak after me, who can, more eloquently 
than I, depict the life and services of Senator 
Kittreclge ; but I cannot forego the sad yet 
pleasant task of paying a short tribute of re- 
spect to the memory of one who was for more 
than a quarter of a century an intimate and 
loyal friend. I regard his death as a dis- 
tinct loss to our state, leaving a blank which 
it will be difficult to fill, for throughout the 
length and breadth of these United States 
the name of Senator Kittredge had become 
firmly associated with the name of South Da- 
kota and added luster to our state ; and in an 
age like this, when many aspiring politicians 
seek to become leaders of the people, and at- 
tain high office by appealing to the passions 
and prejudices of the multitude, there is 
great need of men in public life like Senator 
Kittredge, who with firmness and decision of 
character, pure and lofty patriotism, and al- 
most infallible judgment in matters pertain- 
ing to great policies of government and af- 
fairs of state, cannot be swerved from the 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 163 

right as God gives them light to see it. No 
personal, political interest was strong enough 
to cause him to change his attitmia when 
once assumed, after careful and pair staking 
consideration, — and he never acted in haste, 
but oily after the most earnest and studious 
investigation. That this was his unalterable 
policy was most clearly proven when he stood 
squarely in opposition to the president and 
all the power of his administration on the 
question of the Panama Canal. Great en- 
gineers believe that time will vindicate the 
wisdom of his action. Be that as it may, it 
was in accord with his judgment and no 
thought of personal danger to his political 
future could move him to surrender his con- 
victions. It was typical of the man. How 
different from many of our public men who 
veer with every change of the political wind, 
thinking not of the best interests of the peo- 
ple, but of their own political fortunes. Sen- 
ator Kittredge was like his great prototype 
who preceeded him in the senate,~to be right 
was a greater honor to him than office. 



164 BIOGRAPHY OF 

"With the thought of a great statesman 
is usually associated the idea of power to 
move the multitude with flowery rhetoric and 
glittering speech, but in this sense Senator 
Kittredge was not a great orator. He was 
called reticent. But until he could think and 
speak clearly he had nothing to say upon 
matters of importance. His thought came 
to him in a clear, well defined and strong 
light. What he clearly saw he clearly com- 
municated and until he was sure of his po- 
sition he never spoke. He never attempted 
to appear eloquent or sparkling and his mind 
rejected all ornaments of speech. He spoke 
only to be understood and not to cloud the 
minds of his hearers by figures of speech or 
glittering platitudes, and generalities. His 
habits of mind could not accept any method 
of speech but that of simple statements of 
facts and natural and logical deductions. A 
severe simplicity and directness marked all 
his efforts, but he was always listened to with 
rapt attention whether in the Senate, at the 
bar or on the stump and his statements of 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 165 

facts were rarely, if ever, questioned. There 
was nothing of the demagogue in his com- 
position, but truth alone was always his 
highest aim. With this perspicuity of 
thought was associated a very high degree of 
intellectual force. He had power of state- 
ment, felicity of arrangement, logical skill, 
depth of conviction and he was always in 
earnest. 

"He was often spoken of as cold, re- 
served and unsympathetic, but those of us 
who knew him intimately fully understood 
that this seeming coldness was superficial 
and sprung largely from a diffidence that was 
genuine and creditable. The really modest 
estimate which he placed upon his own abil- 
ities and accomplishments made him slow to 
engage the attention of others, except as duty 
demanded, but underneath a seeming cold 
exterior beat as warm a heart as ever palpi- 
tated in the bosom of a human being. He 
was always true to his friends and enjoyed 
their company and conversation to a remark- 
able degree. 



166 BIOGRAPHY OF 



"His patriotism was of that character 
not bounded by state lines, but which com- 
prehended the interests of the entire coun- 
try. He had no sectional ambition or ani- 
mosity to gratify and possessed none of that 
ambition that would lead him to aspire to 
places of honor by any means that would 
conflict with his well confirmed notions of 
justice, morality and integrity. 

"His vision was broad and he was at all 
times a champion of the great principles of 
self-government and constitutional liberty, 
ever jealous and watchful of all encroach- 
ments of power against the bulwark of free- 
dom — the Federal Constitution. His broad 
patriotism, his unsullied integrity, his great 
natural abilities, his indefatigable industry 
and his unswerving fidelity to principle and 
justice, commanded the unbounded respect 
of his associates in the Senate of the United 
States and made him one of the few leaders 
of that august body, bringing great renown 
to our state, which he so highly honored by 
his presence there. 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 167 

"He loved his chosen profession — the 
law, the labors of which were congenial to 
his tastes, and for which he was eminently 
fitted by an endowment of extraordinary* 
powers of mind united with an untiring in- 
dustry. He always commanded the entire 
respect of both the bar and the court. Trained 
to habits of logical reasoning and judicial in- 
vestigation he subjected evidence and law to 
the closest scrutiny ; never went to trial with- 
out thorough preparation and seldom lost a 
case. He was the leader of the bar in this 
young commonwealth, at a time when there 
were many giants here. In the practice of 
his profession, to be kind to the widow and 
fatherless, was one of his canons, and never 
in his profession would he receive a reward 
for serving them. In his intercourse with 
his associates at the bar he was always kind, 
courteous and considerate, and he won his 
cases by his masterful handling of the law 
and evidence and never by bluff and an as- 
sumed superiority. 

"All his conduct in both public and pri- 



168 BIOGRAPHY OF 

vate life was characterized by the greatest 
simplicity and lack of ostentation. That he 
made integrity his religion, work his orison, 
and truth his idolatry, is only repeating the 
written words of the wise and good of all 
ages. He was always true to his friends 
and every public trust. Pericles in his last 
illness said : "No Athenian in consequence 
of any action of mine has ever put on mourn- 
ing." As Alfred B. Kittredge turned for 
the last time to behold the light of day, and 
passed into the undiscovered country in the 
prime of life he might have truthfully given 
utterance to these words of Pericles in a 
larger and better sense. 

"Great as a statesman, renowned as a 
lawyer and faithful as a friend, his fame 
and memory are secure in the affections and 
remembrances of a grateful people whom he 
so nobly served. So long as South Dakota 
honors the great men who have promoted her 
interests in state and nation, the name of 
Alfred B. Kittredge will shine in effulgent 
glory on the pages of her history. 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 169 



'His star of life sunk ere yet it had reached 

its full promise; 
Snatched all too early from the august fame 
That on the serene heights of silvered age 
Waited with laurelled hand.' " 



170 BIOGRAPHY OF 



MEMORIAL COMMENTS. 

Attorney Tore Teigen, Vice-President 
of the Committee, during the services, read 
many letters from men prominent in the na- 
tional life commenting upon the importance 
of Senator Kittredge's work in the Senate 
and upon his sterling qualities as a man. 
From these letters, the following extracts 
are taken : 



William H. Taft then president of the 
United States, wrote : 

"I knew Senator Kittredge in his life as 
a Senator. We had been Yale men and had 
a strong bond of sympathy that unites the 
sons of that Alma Mater. I had much to do 
with him in connection with the Panama 
Canal, for I was Secretary of War while he 
was Chairman of the Canal Committee of 
the Senate. We did not agree on the type 
of the canal, but in other respects we were 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 171 

in harmony. I can testify to the conscien- 
tiousness, earnestness and assiduity with 
which he devoted his whole life to the public 
service as long as he was in office. South 
Dakota lost in him a very able lawyer and 
an honest, effective representative of the 
people." 



Senator J. C. Burrows of Michigan sent 
the following as his tribute : 

"I am exceedingly gratified to know that 
the people of South Dakota propose to honor 
the memory of Senator Kittredge, who served 
the State so faithfully and so well. It was 
my good fortune to serve with him in the 
United States Senate during his entire term 
and I came to greatly admire his sterling 
qualities of head and heart, which in his 
brief service placed him well to fore in that 
great legislative body. He won the respect 
and confidence of all. It can truthfully be 
said of him — 

'He never sold the truth to serve the hour, 
Or parted with eternal right for power.' " 



172 BIOGRAPHY OF 

Senator Knute Nelson of Minnesota, 
whom Senator Kittredge placed high in es- 
teem both as statesman and friend, wrote the 
committee as follows: 

"I am exceedingly glad to learn through 
your favor of the 18th that the friends of 
Senator Kittredge are about to unveil a bust 
of him at Pierre in your State. I became 
intimately acquainted with the Senator dur- 
ing his service in the Senate and learned to 
appreciate his value and great ability as a 
Senator. 

"He was a man of very strong mind and 
clear judgment, who seemed to comprehend 
and grasp intuitively the scope of any im- 
portant subject of legislation that was pend- 
ing in the Senate. He seemed always to 
have the public welfare at heart and never al- 
lowed himself by party prejudices or undue 
suasion to be diverted from the straight and 
honest course. He was true and honest to 
the American people and faithful and true 
to his trust as the representative of your 
State. 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 173 

"While not an orator in the common ac- 
ceptance of the term he was nevertheless a 
clear and sound debater, who could set forth 
the merits of a subject in vivid and terse 
terms, and for this reason whatever he had 
to say on any subject in the Senate always 
carried great weight. 

"I regarded him, after I became ac- 
quainted with him, as one of the ablest and 
best Senators of the great Northwest and 
deeply deplore his early and untimely death. 

"I congratulate you and the other mem- 
bers of your committee on your efforts to 
thus commemorate his memory, for surely he 
deserves a great place in the hearts of all 
your people." 



Senator J. H. Gallinger of New Hamp- 
shire : 

"While the Hon. Alfred B. Kittredge 
was born in the State of New Hampshire, 
and I was well acquainted with his family, it 
was not my pleasure to meet him until he be- 
came Senator of the United States. He de- 



174 BIOGRAPHY OF 

scended from a family of much distinction in 
New England, his father being a man of high 
character, business integrity, and political 
activity. From the moment that Mr. Kit- 
tredge entered the Senate he became a favor- 
ite on both sides of the Chamber, and it is 
safe to say that when he left the Senate he 
sustained kindly relations with every mem- 
ber of that body. He was recognized by 
his associates as a man of profound convic- 
tions and high ideals. He was also regard- 
ed as a man of great legal learning, whose 
opinions on questions of law were entitled to 
the highest possible consideration. He was 
a careful and conscientious legislator, and in 
addition to serving with great distinction on 
the Committee on the Judiciary he did splen- 
did work as Chairman of the Committee on 
Inter-oceanic Canals, having a clear concep- 
tion of the necessary legislation to secure 
the safe construction of that great water- 
way. His kindness of heart, geniality of 
disposition and never-failing courtesy, en- 
deared him to his associates, and when he 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 175 

left the Senate it was a matter of deep regret 
to all of us who had been privileged to enjoy 
his friendship. As a New Hampshire man I 
am especially pleased to know that a bust of 
Mr. Kittredge is to be unveiled at the Capi- 
tol of your State, so that future generations 
may be made aware of the fact that South 
Dakota had been honored by sending a man 
of such sterling qualities and splendid abil- 
ities." 



In a letter regretting his inability to be 
present at the exercises, Congressman Eben 
W. Martin of the Third Congressional Dis- 
trict of this State wrote : 

"Life long friends of Senator Kittredge 
will, I am sure, be present to speak from the 
heart in tribute to his many strong and 
faithful traits of character. As one of his 
colleagues in Washington I had a good op- 
portunity to know of the character of his 
public service. In my official residence in 
Washington of nearly twelve years I have 
never known a member of either House of 



176 BIOGRAPHY OF 

Congress who put in more hours each day in 
the public's service than was the habit of 
Senator Kittredge. He arose regularly in 
time for a six o'clock breakfast, then walked 
to his office at Capitol Hill where he com- 
menced his labors of the day regularly at 
seven o'clock in the morning, and it was not 
an unusual experience to find him still at his 
desk after the adjournment of the Senate in 
the evening. He contributed his best talent 
for the progress of the Nation and his State." 



During the afternoon three splendid 
eulogies of Senator Kittredge were delivered 
by Judge Dick Haney, of the state supreme 
court ; by Hon. John T. Kean, of Minneapolis, 
ex-lieutenant-governor of South Dakota, and 
by Mr. Charles M. Day, of Sioux Falls, editor 
of the Daily Argus-Leader. These orations 
are herein given in full. They follow: 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 177 



MEMORIAL ADDRESS. 

By Judge Dick Haney of the Supreme Court 
of South Dakota. 

"To understand character requires at- 
tention to inherited tendencies and early en- 
vironment. 

"The man whose memory we have met 
to honor was born on a farm among the hills 
of New Hampshire, when God was 'tramp- 
ling out the vintage where the grapes of 
wrath are stored;' when the hearts of the 
men and women of New England were aglow 
with the love of liberty; when patriotism 
was the ruling passion in northern homes; 
when the flower of American manhood was 
being prepared for that 'full measure of de- 
votion' required to preserve the Union ; when 
gentle women, going down into the very shad- 
ows of death, that future defenders of the 
flag might exist, were imbuing their children 
with the most exalted aspirations and im- 
pulses. 



17 8 BIOGRAPHY OF 



"Fourteen years, doubtless the most 
happy of Mr. Kittredge's life, were spent on 
a farm in a typical New England home, free 
alike from the privations of poverty and the 
enervating influences of wealth, where he 
acquired habits of industry and conceptions 
of moral rectitude which characterized his 
conduct throughout his entire career. 

"During the years of his boyhood he 
performed his part of the daily toil incident 
to life on the farm ; engaged in the invigor- 
ating sports of northern winters; enjoyed 
the pleasures of glorious summers and splen- 
did autumns; learned to love the sound of 
rippling waters, the songs of birds, the infi- 
nite, exquisite music of nature. During those 
years he learned the teaching of the stars; 
learned to appreciate the beauty of moun- 
tains, rivers, forests and flowers ; learned the 
precepts of his mother's religion; learned 
the lessons of life as they were taught in the 
farm homes of good old New England-homes 
whence have emanated in large degree the in- 
tellectual and moral forces which have pre- 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 179 

served the better social and political institu- 
tions of our great republic — whence have 
come the men, who, in a large degree, have 
contributed to the marvelous, material pro- 
gress and prosperity of the entire country and 
caused its flag to be respected 'in every land 
and on every sea under the whole Heavens.' 

"I know not what hopes, ambitions, as- 
pirations, dreams, stirred the heart and 
brain of the reticent country lad as he fol- 
lowed the plow, played by the brook or wan- 
dered in the woods ; I know not the language 
of his mother's prayers ; but I do know that 
the promise of his youth was fulfilled in far 
larger measure than is usual even in this 
land of opportunities. 

"Mr. Kittredge graduated from Yale in 
1882; completed the law course of that an- 
cient institution and was admitted to the bar 
in 1885. The same year he located at Sioux 
Falls in the then territory of Dakota, where 
he continued to reside until the time of his 
last illness. 

"He was twice elected state senator 



180 BIOGRAPHY OF 

from Minnehaha county. He represented the 
republican party of this state on the national 
committee for four years beginning in 1892. 
He was appointed United States senator in 
1901, and chosen to that high office by the 
legislature in 1903. He died on May 4, 1911. 

Such a record does not require the aid 
of art or oratory. It is sufficient of itself to 
preserve its possessor's name from oblivion. 
Any one, who honorably secures a seat in the 
senate of the United States, merits consider- 
ation. But there are other reasons than this 
to justify the friends of A. B. Kittredge in 
presenting to South Dakota the work of art 
which will be presently unveiled ; abundant 
reason why representation of his now well 
remembered features should be placed and 
preserved in the Capitol of his adopted state. 

For a considerable period Mr. Kittredge 
was recognized as the leader, in this state, of 
the great political party to which he be- 
longed. He was its leader in fact as well as 
in name. His friends believed he exercised 
the powers of that position with due regard 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 181 

to individual rights, prompted solely by the 
desire to promote the best interests of all the 
people of the state; that the time will come 
if it has not now arrived, when men of all 
parties and factions will concede the recti- 
tude of his intentions. Certain it is, that dur- 
ing the whole course of his political career, 
no person, not even his most unreasonable 
political enemy, ever had cause to question 
his personal integrity. Certain it is, that 
no taint of political corruption ever soiled 
the mantle of his masterful leadership. Cer- 
tain it is, that no lawyer in South Dakota 
has been more constantly careful than he, to 
remove our judges from the slighest sug- 
gestion of improper influence. 

"Mr. Kittredge was successful in busi- 
ness. When his last illness came he stood in 
the front rank of his chosen profession, uni- 
versally recognized as an attorney of excep- 
tional ability and marvelous industry. 

"It was, however, during the eight years 
of his service in the United States senate 
that Mr. Kittredge gave proof of his real 



character; proof so abundant that his fame 
as a legislator has become a valued national 
heritage. It is doubtful if any person ever 
entered the senate who acquired the same 
degree of prominence in so short a time of 
service. Practically unknown beyond the 
boundaries of his state when he took his 
seat in that distinguished legislative body, 
when he retired to resume the practice of his 
profession he had secured a place among the 
ablest living statesmen of his country. All 
this was accomplished without oratory, with- 
out display, without self -advertising ; simply 
by force of his indomitable industry and the 
intellectual and moral strength of his char- 
acter. 

"Reputation and character are not the 
same. As some one has said: 'Reputation is 
what men and women say of us ; character is 
what God and the angels know of us.' Bad rep- 
utations usually are worse than they deserve 
to be; good ones, better than they deserve to 
be. Men without any essential element of 
true character may receive the applause of 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 183 

the multitude. The voice of the people was 
not the voice of God when it rang through 
the judgment halls of Pilot, 'Crucify him! 
Crucify him !' 

"Men who rise to high place and power 
in a republic usually belong to one of two 
classes: Those who lead in the direction 
the people appear inclined to go and those 
who, endeavoring to lead in the direction 
they believe the people should go, follow the 
straight and narrow path of duty regardless 
of the effect upon their own personal political 
fortunes. Mr. Kittredge belonged to the lat- 
ter class. He always was loyal to his party, 
loyal to his country, loyal to his friends, mod- 
est, reserved, sensitive, incapable of artifice ; 
fearless in the conflicts of life, and calm in 
the hour of death. The days of his life on 
earth are ended but the influence of his 
strong personality, the results of his arduous 
labors, and the memory of his many qualities, 
remain. 

"Thinking of that low green tent among 
the hills of his boyhood's hopes, whose cur- 



184 BIOGRAPHY OP 

tain never outward swings; thinking of all 
that was good and true and brave in the life 
of the departed: thinking of his service to 
the state and nation ; thinking of the solitude 
of every soul in its prison flesh ; thinking of 
the hour when we too shall take our chamber 
in 'the silent halls of death;' forgetting his 
faults as we would have our faults forgot- 
ten, shall we not hope that somewhere in the 
infinite hereafter there is perfect peace, per- 
fect understanding and absolutely just re- 
wards." 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 185 



KITTREDGE AS A STATESMAN. 

By Hon. John T. Kean, of Minneapolis, Min- 
nesota, ex-Lieutenant-Governor of 
South Dakota. 

"Before addressing myself to the sub- 
ject allotted to me, I must pause long enough 
to acknowledge my obligations to the Me- 
morial Committee for the great honor they 
have conferred upon me, carrying with it, as 
it does, the great privilege of allowing me to 
contribute my own wreath of forget-me-nots 
in memory of my friend who has gone. 

"When, by appointment of Governor 
Herreid, Mr. Kittredge became United States 
Senator, he took with him into the larger field 
of national activities three great prerequi- 
sites of success — Honesty of Purpose, Devo- 
tion to Duty and a Genius for Labor, and in 
due time they brought to him the full meas- 
ure of reward. From early morning until 



186 BIOGRAPHY OF 

late at night he labored as no other Senator 
in Washington ever did. Not now and then, 
but every day seven o'clock found him at 
work. When the senate was in session he 
always was in his seat and when not in ses- 
sion, he was doing committee work. Every 
move for the good of this state commanded 
his instant and loyal support. Every letter 
from a constituent recieved his personal at- 
tention and he was ever the loyal and consist- 
ent friend of the old soldier. 

"After a very careful research and in- 
vestigation, Senator Kittredge became con- 
vinced that the great lumber interests of the 
country had entered into a combine to unduly 
and unlawfully inflate the price of lumber to 
the consumer. To the great prairie state of 
the Northwest this was a matter of supreme 
importance, and in an able and impressive 
speech before the Senate he asked for a reso- 
lution of inquiry directing the Department of 
Labor and Commerce to investigate the mat- 
ter. His Resolution prevailed and his evi- 
dence and data were placed at the service of 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 187 

the department, but for reasons which need 
not be mentioned the matter was pigeon- 
holed for such a time that when the investi- 
gation took place its purpose was partially 
defeated. Since that time the need of an 
investigation became so imperative that the 
Department of Justice has been pressing its 
suits all over the country against the lumber 
trusts with a fair measure of success but to 
the late Senator Kittredge belongs the credit 
for initiating the movement against this 
great combine and in the interest of the home 
builder of the great Northwest. 

"For centuries it had been alike the hope 
and the dream of the mariner that some day 
the little neck of land that kept the two 
oceans apart might be cut in twain, their wa- 
ters wedded and the Occident and Orient 
brought thousands of miles nearer each oth- 
er. 

"When other efforts had failed and this 
government had resolved to accomplish the 
task itself, at this time Senator Kittredge 
arrived in Washington, and by a most happy 



188 BIOGRAPHY OF 

chance was placed on the committee on inter- 
oceanic canals, of which the late Senator 
Hanna was chairman. With Senator Kit- 
tredge it was congenial and fascinating 
work, and with untiring and undaunted en- 
ergy he studied every one of the many and 
complex questions arising, and I am abso- 
lutely within the facts when I say that Sen- 
ator Kittredge was recognized and admitted 
by all as the best informed man in public life 
on all canal questions. And then a great 
controversy arose — shall it be the Panama or 
Nicaraguan route? Doubt was thrown up- 
on the Panama title. The committee appoint- 
ed a sub-committee to determine whether 
or no, if this government purchased of the 
French Panama Canal Company its rights, 
franchises and concessions, the title would be 
good. This sub-committee was composed of 
some very able lawyers, of whom Senator 
Morgan of Alabama was chairman. Mr. Kit- 
tredge was a member of the sub-committee. 
The majority of that sub-committee, after an 
exhaustive investigation, declared the Pana- 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 189 

ma title to be bad and declared for the 
Nicaraguan route. Senator Kittredge pre- 
pared a minority report, affirming the 
Panama title to be good, passing upon all the 
legal questions involved and declaring in 
favor of the Panama route. His brief upon 
that great question will forever link his name 
with the greatest constructive and engineer- 
ing work of the world. It was approved by 
the President of the United States and re- 
ceived the official sanction of the Department 
of Justice, and standing on the floor of the 
Senate with his brief and his minority re- 
port, he defended them both. In the 
presentation of his views he showed sagacity 
and tact. His sentences were short and com- 
pact. He reasoned with crystal clearness 
and fortified his conclusions by indisputable 
facts, cold, irresistible logic and all clothed in 
the simplest and plainest of English. His 
minority report was adopted, the Senate de- 
clared in favor of the Panama route and 
work was begun. This year it is expected 
that the canal will be finished and the dream 



190 BIOGRAPHY OF 

of ages realized, but the expenditure of hun- 
dreds of millions of dollars and the realiza- 
tion of all our hopes in that direction is all 
based upon the brief prepared by the late 
Senator Kittredge, declaring that if we pur- 
chased the franchises and concessions, we 
would secure a good title. 

"The speech which Senator Kittredge 
made upon that occasion brought him from 
obscurity to fame ; up out of the ranks of the 
Many into the ranks of the distinguished 
Few who, by virtue of results obtained and 
intellectual equipment, rank as leaders in the 
Senate. 

"Following the decision of the Senate in 
favor of the Panama route and all through 
the negotiations leading up to the final pur- 
chase of the French concessions and fran- 
chises, it was understood that the type of 
canal to be constructed was to be of the 
sea-level order. The committee on inter-oce- 
anic canals had declared for it and one of the 
controlling reasons that influenced the Sen- 
ate in preferring the Panama route was that 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 191 

a sea-level canal could be obtained which 
could not be done with the Nicaraguan 
route. 

"The administration was understood to 
be in perfect harmony with the program for 
a sea-level canal; but later, claiming that 
both time and money would be saved, it 
changed its attitude and advocated the lock 
canal. 

"It was characteristic of Senator Kit- 
tredge and entirely to his credit that he 
broke with the President rather than change 
his convictions. 

"When the type of canal was under con- 
sideration, Senator Kittredge on the floor of 
the Senate led in the fight for the sea-level 
canal and bore the brunt of the attack from 
those opposing him. He was aided by the 
committee on inter-oceanic canals and eight 
out of the thirteen constituting the board of 
consulting engineers endorsed his attitude. 
But the President of the United States 
brought all the force and influence of his 
great office to bear, and by a narrow margin 



192 BIOGRAPHY OF 

the Senate voted for the lock canal. Whether 
Senator Kittredge was right or wrong, time 
alone will record its verdict. But all through 
the canal controversy the late Senator 
showed such high moral courage, such devo- 
tion to his convictions and upheld his views 
with such conspicuous ability and fairness, 
that his position as one of the great men of 
the Senate was unchallenged. 

"Some one has said that the purpose of 
language was to conceal thought, but it was 
not so with Senator Kittredge. His English 
was like a stream of pure water, clear and 
limpid. He spoke in the Senate but few 
times, but what he said was always a notable 
contribution to the subject under considera- 
tion and the simplicity of his English was en- 
hanced by the crystal clearness of his thought 
and logic. 

"It was repugnant to his modest and 
honest nature to resort to the tricks and arti- 
fices so frequently used by public speakers. 
There was nothing of the dramatic about 
him. He was not an orator — he did not pre- 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 193 

tend to be. He never tore a passion into 
tatters, but whether orator or not, the fact 
remains that when Senator Kittredge spoke, 
the greatest deliberative body in the world 
paid him its highest compliment — it always 
listened to what he had to say. 

"But the time came when the people of 
this State recalled its commission and at a 
moment, when the door of Opportunity was 
wide open to him, when Fame stood in its 
portal and beckoned him on, when his career 
was bright with a promise of greater honors 
yet to be won, at this crucial hour, he was re- 
tired to private life. This is not the time nor 
the place to refer to the contributing causes 
of his defeat. If the arrow of justice ran- 
kled deep, he was too brave and too modest to 
bear his heart upon his sleeve. 

"He played the game fairly and accord- 
ing to the rules, and, if, in his sturdy way, 
he gave blows he likewise expected to re- 
ceive them. 

"But I believe if he had lived, it would 
not have been long until the people of this 



194 BIOGRAPHY OF 

State, realizing their mistake, would have 
knocked at his door and urged him to again 
represent them in the United States Senate. 

"But that is neither here nor there. His 
life work is done, his battles are fought, and 
with characteristic courage he fought against 
the encroachment of that Great Power that 
enters hovel and palace alike, that 'lays the 
shepherd's crook beside the scepter of the 
king.' But weary at last of the struggle, he 
laid his head on the soft bosom of Mother 
Nature and fell asleep. So let him rest. 'His 
name above the need of eulogy, his motives 
beyond the reach of malice.' 

"Up in the hills of New England in the 
State that gave him birth his remains are 
buried, but his fame belongs to this great 
Commonwealth that gave him to the Nation. 

"As the years go by, South Dakota will 
have other sons of whom she may be justly 
proud, and whose monuments may be placed 
in this Capitol building, but none will there 
be who can or ever will give to the State in 
purpose and energy such full and unstinted 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 195 

measure of all that he possessed as did the 
late Senator Kittredge. 

"Mr. President, as this great State with 
its ever widening horizon shall go down the 
isles of the future, so, likewise, slowly reced- 
ing into the past, will be the memory of the 
personality of her great son; until at last, 
wrapped in the kindly mantle of the mist and 
fog of time, it will be lost to the world for- 
ever. 

"But, Mr. President, let us indulge in 
the hope that so long as cold marble shall 
retain its enduring form, the memory of 
his industry, his honesty, his fidelity to his 
friends, his State and the Nation, his great 
mind and his Heart of Gold, shall ever prove 
a noble and lasting inspiration to the youth 
of this great Commonwealth. For these, af- 
ter all, are the things that truly live. 

'Cold in the dust that perished heart may 

lie, 
But that which warmed it once shall never 

die.' 

"Mr. President, as we review the career 
of this great man, as we dwell on those qual- 



196 BIOGRAPHY OF 

ities that endeared him to his friends and 
made him useful to his State and Nation, I 
am prompted to exclaim as Antony did when 
he saw the dead body of Brutus : — 

'The elements so mixed in him that 

Nature might 
Stand up and say to all 

The world, "This was a man.' " 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 197 



KITTREDGE AS A FRIEND. 

By Charles M. Day, of Sioux Falls, South 
Dakota, Editor of The Daily Argus- 
Leader. 

"Soon after the death of Alfred Beard 
Kittredge in Hot Springs, Arkansas, on the 
4th day of May, 1911, his friends all over the 
State began to suggest the propriety of the 
erection in the State House of a lasting mem- 
orial in his memory. The movement finally 
took form by the appointment of a commit- 
tee of nine to take charge of the matter. For 
the purpose of administrative convenience, 
this committee was composed of men who 
lived in Sioux Falls, but in every portion of 
their undertaking they have had the hearty 
and loyal support of the friends of the late 
Senator in every portion of the State, from 
the great Black Hills country to Watertown, 
and from Aberdeen to Yankton. I had the 



198 BIOGRAPHY OF 

honor to be made chairman of that committee 
which was known as the Kittredge Memorial 
Committee. Edward G. Kennedy was its 
treasurer. Tore Tiegen was made its vice- 
president. Colonel R. J. Woods was selected 
as secretary and as the chairman of the fi- 
nance committee. John H. Toohey, Dr. R. F. 
Brown, E. B. Northrup, William T. Doolittle 
and Will A. Beach completed the committee 
of nine, under the auspices of which the work 
was undertaken and completed. 

"The committee first made a contract 
with H. Daniel Webster, a graduate of the 
Sioux Falls High School, who had become a 
sculptor of renown, for a marble bust of the 
late Senator. Mr. Webster's equipment for 
the undertaking was doubly vouched for by 
the excellent work he had done in the making 
of a statue of General W. H. H. Beadle, 
which now stands in the State House as 
South Dakota's appreciation of a great 
thought persistently exploited by a far sight- 
ed and courageous man; and by the further 
fact that Mr. Webster had been personally 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 199 

acquainted with Mr. Kittredge, whom he 
knew well and admired much. Scarcely had 
Mr. Webster started the work, however, 
when he died suddenly in Texas, putting an 
end to a career at scarcely 30 years of age, 
which had promised to reflect great honor 
upon his family and his State, and to write 
his name high in the world of artistic 
achievement. Following this the committee 
decided to turn the work over to Mrs. Ethel 
Webster, the young widow of H. Daniel Web- 
ster, who had never seen the Senator, and 
who was compelled to make her ideals entire- 
ly from his photographs and from personal 
descriptions given by friends of Mr. Kit- 
tredge. It is this bust representing the quiet 
strength, the calm poise, and the heroic mold 
of our distinguished citizen and fallen com- 
rade that the friends of the Senator, through 
his committee, turns over to the keeping of 
the State, and to the inspection and apprecia- 
tion of generations yet unborn. 

"I have been asked to speak briefly of 
Alfred B. Kittredge as a friend. It was my 



200 BIOGRAPHY OF 

privilege to know Mr. Kittredge in many re- 
lations in life, but it was on the personal side 
that he called most for admiration and affec- 
tion. 'He was my friend, faithful and just 
to me,' and it is as such that I shall speak of 
him today. 

"I first met Alfred B. Kittredge in the 
summer of 1886 in the office of L. D. Henry, 
then a city justice in Sioux Falls, now a resi- 
dent of Hartford, in Minnehaha county. I 
last saw him the day before his death bravely 
fighting a hopeless battle in Hot Springs, 
Arkansas, in May, 1911. Of what he had 
Wone during the twenty-five years that had in- 
tervened, of how he had grown from a brief- 
less attorney to one whose counsel and advice 
were sought throughout the west, of how 
from an unknown youth he had developed in- 
to a leader, with the largest and most devoted 
personal following ever known in South Da- 
kota, of how with no backing but that of good 
health and lofty purpose and remarkable 
industry he had won his way to the 
front — these are the things I should 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 201 

like to speak of, for they contain a fine story 
of the making of a splendid leader out of the 
raw material of .high purpose and inherent 
manhood — but it is a story outside the scope 
of my remarks today. 

"For Alfred B. Kittredge the road was 
never too long, nor the night too cold nor the 
going too hard if at the end of it he could be 
of service to a friend. I am talking to men of 
affairs, to men experienced in the ways of 
politics and business, and I would ask them 
to make a list of their real friends — of the 
men who would sacrifice for them or lose for 
them or go down into the ditch for them. The 
list would be a short one. Shall I say that 
they can be counted on the fingers of one 
hand ? Mr. Kittredge was a man of that sort. 
It was perhaps this quality which brought to 
his standard more warm and devoted fol- 
lowers than has been the portion of any other 
public man in this State. It was perhaps for 
this reason that the dispatch from Hot 
Springs announcing the end of his desperate 
struggle for life brought to South Dakota a 



202 BIOGRAPHY OF 

wideness and depth of sorrow which had not 
been known before. 

"The little back room in the rear of his 
office in Sioux Falls was the most glorious 
clearing house of friendship that the State 
has ever known. Here nothing was too small 
for Mr. Kittredge's consideration and noth- 
ing too large for his attention. Whatever was 
of interest to a friend was of interest to Mr. 
Kittredge. Here he was known to all his 
friends as 'Kit' or 'The Old Man.' Elected to 
the United States Senate, and winning a 
place there as a leader, Mr. Kittredge's unas- 
suming modesty and delightful simplicity 
were unchanged and to the day of his death, 
the beautiful comradeship of the little back 
room was delightfully unchanged. 

"There was no consideration for Mr. 
Kittredge's friendship. He asked no return 
except the return of friendship. When a 
friend became involved in trouble, Mr. Kit- 
tredge stuck to him the closer. When other 
friends left, this one remained. The clouds 
might gather, and the storm break, but the 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 203 

friendship of this man stood as fixed and un- 
wavering as a guiding star — true and faith- 
ful and loyal ever. 

"Good taste forbids the mention, on an 
occasion like this, of specific cases, but his 
friends still remember and rejoice over his 
knightly loyalty to a friend in the keenest of 
trouble of his life when that loyalty undoubt- 
edly cost Mr. Kittredge his re-election to the 
United States Senate. In the hours of his 
truly desperate sorrow, when friends were 
leaving, and the darkness had gathered, and 
the pitiless storms were beating hard, there 
was one shoulder on which this beaten and 
broken man could lean ; there was one voice to 
cheer and comfort, there was one friendship 
that was as unwavering as the stars above — 
the shoulder, the voice, the friendship of Al- 
fred B. Kittredge. It cost something, and 
Mr. Kittredge knew that, but it is one of the 
reasons that Alfred B. Kittredge is missed 
the more today. 

"I shall never forget my first intimate 
view of the Rocky Mountains. One cannot 



204 BIOGRAPHY OF 

see the mountains from a passing train. He 
must drive into them and climb over them, 
to see and feel the meaning of the mountain 
spirit. Born and reared upon the prairies, 
I looked with unspoken wonder at the vast 
cathedrals which the Almighty had builded 
there. To me there came the thought that 
for uncounted ages they had looked down 
unchanged upon a changing world. And all 
that was small and petty and temporary fell 
away like mist before the sun. I knew that 
these mountains were grimly and silently 
the same as when the armies of Alexander 
trod the earth in their vain-glory, when the 
little ships of Columbus set sail for a new 
world, and when Washington prayed and suf- 
fered at Valley Forge. And as I looked and 
thought and wondered, it seemed to me that 
character and fidelity and truth were the on- 
ly things eternal and that it really mattered 
very little, as related to the great march of 
things, what any one individual had won or 
lost, in political aspiration or financial ven- 
ture. 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 205 

"It was ever with some such feeling that 
I left a visit with Alfred B. Kittredge. There 
was a poise and balance in his point of view, 
a magnanimity in victory and a serenity in 
defeat, a bigness in his adjustment and a 
wideness in his comradeship with the world 
that suggested the crystalline atmosphere of 
the mountain peaks — the size of something 
that could not be small — the immutability of 
something that could not change — the gentle 
and the serene peace of a great soul that 
knew what friendship meant." 



206 BIOGRAPHY OF 



BUST UNVEILED. 

At the conclusion of the exercises, the 
great assemblage retired to the rotunda of 
the Capitol, where Attorney Russell D. Kit- 
tredge, of Sioux Falls, a nephew of Senator 
Kittredge, gently pulled aside the large flag 
which veiled the marble bust of the Senator ; 
and the admiring audience, led by the double 
quartet, burst forth in the patriotic strains 
of 

"My Country, Tis of thee, 

Sweet land of Liberty." 
Only two men in South Dakota have been 
thus honored to date. The first one was that 
grand old educator for a half century, Gen. 
W. H. H. Beadle. The other is A. B. Kit- 
tredge. Their marble statues stand facing 
each other in two of the four alcoves in the 
rotunda of our state Capitol, especially pro- 
vided for this purpose. Beadle, in the realm 
of education, ingratiated himself in the 




His Marble Bust, State Capitol, Pierre, S. D. 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 207 

hearts of the school children of the state, 
who contributed the pennies that bought his 
statue. Kittredge, in the field of law and 
practical politics, forged his way to the front 
and earned a place in the state's Temple of 
Fame. 



208 BIOGRAPHY OF 



OIL PAINTINGS. 

After his death, Senator Kittredge's 
friends also contributed an amount necessary 
to have two large oil paintings made of him. 
They are valued at $500 apiece. These paint- 
ings are the work of Mr. H. K. Saunders, of 
Pierre. He is a Civil War Veteran who 
served with Co. "K" 36th 111. Infantry. The 
pictures are masterful pieces of art. One 
of them hangs in the state Capitol at 
Pierre, the other hangs in the Cataract hotel 
at Sioux Falls. 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 209 



OTHER HONORS. 

In addition to the western honors that 
were bestowed upon the memory of the Sen- 
ator, back east, in the region of his boyhood 
home, he was recently remembered again. 
The following is from the August 19, 1914, 
issue of the "Keene Sentinel," published at 
Keene, New Hampshire : 

" A memorial meeting of the school 
friends and relatives of the late U. S. Sena- 
tor Alfred Beard Kittreclge, a native of Nel- 
son, was held Wednesday afternoon at the 
school house at the Center. Mr. Kittredge's 
picture was given to the school by his broth- 
er, Prof. H. W. Kittredge. Rev. A. L. Struth- 
ers, who married a second cousin of the 
Senator's, acted as chairman of the proceed- 
ings. Rev. Edwin N. Hardy, Ph. D., a sec- 
ond cousin, and pastor of a church at La 
Grange, Illinois, gave an outline of the life 
and work of the late senator and many par- 



210 BIOGRAPHY OF 



ticulars of his boyhood days, paying fitting 
tribute to his exceptional talent and charac- 
ter. Mrs. Pearson, his sister, unveiled and 
presented the picture, giving a few words 
in regard to her brother in the home and his 
true worth ; and Homer Priest, superintend- 
ent of schools here, responded and acknowl- 
edged the gift, saying he hoped the children 
who looked upon the picture would be in- 
spired to do better work. Mrs. D. H. Osgood, 
a teacher of Mr. Kittredge and also of others 
present, gave testimony to the faithfulness of 
his work when a boy in school and in his 
home duties. Rev. M. F. Hardy spoke most 
helpfully, drawing lessons from the points of 
character already presented and forcefully 
applying them. Mrs. T. W. Barker and Mrs. 
A. L. Struthers gave a few pleasant reminis- 
cences of the boyhood days of the deceased. 
His father, Russell H. Kittredge of East Jaf- 
frey, Miss McKough and Miss Barker, E. H. 
Kittredge of Boston and Mr. and Mrs. Pear- 
son and son of Gardner, Mass., were present 
at the exercises. 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 211 

"The picture hangs near the old-fash- 
ioned long bench on which Senator Kittredge 
sat while a boy in school." 



CHAPTER VIII. 

ADDITIONAL TRIBUTES. 

BY PRESIDENT TAFT, SENATOR CRAWFORD 

C. H. LUGG, G. W. NASH, M. M. RAMER, 

DOANE ROBINSON, GEO. A. SILSBY, 

JOE PARMLEY, LEE STOVER, THE 

DEAD EULOGIZES THE DEAD. 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 213 



PRESIDENT TAFT'S TRIBUTE. 

Inasmuch as Judge Carland, of Sioux 
Falls, (Now U. S. Circuit Judge), resigned 
the Federal Judgeship of South Dakota in 
the winter of 1910, to accept an appointment 
at the hands of President Taft on the newly 
created United States Commerce court, and 
owing to the fact that the president, for sev- 
eral months, permitted the vacancy caused 
by Judge Carland's promotion, to go unfilled, 
it was persistently rumored over the state, 
as well as commented on by the press, that 
President Taft was awaiting the outcome of 
Senator Kittredge's illness, so as to tender 
to him the appointment of Federal Judge, 
provided he recovered sufficiently to accept 
it ; therefore, in the preparation of this book, 
in order to clarify the political atmosphere 
and keep the record straight, as well as to do 
justice to Judge James D. Elliott, one of the 
foremost jurists of the west, who received 



214 BIOGRAPHY OF 

the appointment, I wrote to President Taft 
and asked him concerning the matter. He 
was told that I desired to publish his reply. 
It follows: 

"March 30th, 1914. 
""My dear Mr. Coursey : 

"I have your letter of March 24th. I 
never thought of appointing Senator Kit- 
tredge as Federal Judge for South Dakota, 
because I do not think he ever was a candi- 
date for the place. I have thought Senator 
Kittredge a strong lawyer, an honest and 
conscientious Senator, of very marked ability 
and great usefulness. He and I differed with 
reference to the type of the Panama canal, 
but I had very pleasant personal relations 
with him, and after the type was settled, we 
worked together with great harmony. 
Sincerely yours, 

Wm. H. Taft" 



A COURAGEOUS FOE. 
Perhaps no tribute to Senator Kittredge 
could carry greater weight than that of his 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 215 

former political adversary, Senator Coe I. 
Crawford. Following is his testimony to the 
worth of the man he defeated : 

"I made the acquaintance of Senator 
Kittredge in 1889. We served together in 
the first State Senate, and were both mem- 
bers of the Committee on the Judiciary. I 
knew him as a lawyer and met him often at 
political conventions. He was a strong man. 
He was temperamentally conservative and 
distrusted any proposed change in the exist- 
ing order of things. He was a, quiet man 
with an iron will. 

"In our views of political procedure we 
were far apart, and in the later years of his 
life we opposed each other politically without 
asking or giving quarter or compromise. No 
man ever had truer or more devoted friends 
than he. No man ever pursued more firmly 
the course which his judgment dictated. He 
was above everything else a rugged, strong 
character who led and held a great band of 
followers by the fascination which always 
goes with the gift of leadership. 



216 BIOGRAPHY OF 

"I was never on terms of intimacy with 
Senator Kittredge. Our differences were dif- 
ferences of viewpoint, and were entirely po- 
litical. Never, so far as I know, were they 
personal. As one who stubbornly opposed 
him politically I can say in all cincerity that 
he was one of the most indomitable and re- 
markable men I have ever known ; a true 
friend, an open and courageous foe, a great 
lawyer, a remarkable personality, who left 
a lasting impression upon his State. 
Very truly, 

Coe I. Crawford." 



FARSIGHTED. 

"Senator Kittredge always impressed me 
as an unassuming man of great reserve pow- 
er who looked far into the future of the caus- 
es with which he allied himself. Causes to 
him were the really important affairs of life, 
and personal questions and preferences were 
secondary matters. His strong, rugged na- 
ture perhaps lacked the tact that might have 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 217 

smoothed his way with those who did not 
agree with him, and for this reason he was 
often misunderstood. He was loyal to South 
Dakota and devoted to her welfare. In his 
death the state lost an able representative in 
the legal world, and a citizen of sterling 
worth. — C. H. Lugg." 



TEMPLE OF FAME. 
"Senator A. B. Kittredge will stand out 
in history as one of the greatest men who 
has ever served South Dakota in a public ca- 
pacity. He was a keen lawyer, an able 
statesman, and a loyal friend. 

"He is easily entitled to a place in South 
Dakota's Temple of Fame. 

George W. Nash." 



STOOD FIRM. 
"Senator Kittredge was first a friend ; 
he never deserted one no matter what the 
personal cost to himself. He was not a poli- 
tician in the modern sense of the word ; he 
was a statesman. His view was always 



218 BIOGRAPHY OF 



broad and patriotic. Having espoused a cause, 
neither popular clamor nor partisanship 
could deter him from standing where his 
convictions dictated. 

M. M. Ramer." 



HIS PLACE IN HISTORY. 

"During the first twenty years of the 
life of South Dakota, Mr. Kittredge exercised 
a strong, conservative influence In the affairs 
of the state. In all business matters he was 
a wise adviser and his influence was ever for 
conservative and economical administration. 
During all of this period, or at least until 
very near the end of it, his position was a 
potent one in the party organization that 
dominated the legislation and administration 
of the commonwealth. In national affairs he 
will always be best remembered by reason of 
his association with the legislation affecting 
the construction of the Panama canal. 

Doane Robinson." 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 219 



<< <i 



A SELF-CONTAINED MAN. 

'Give me that man 
That is no passion's slave, and I will wear 

him 
In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart, 
As I do thee.' 

"The immortal Shakespeare puts the 
above language into the lines of one of his 
characters ; and he must have been thinking 
of a man possessed of the rich attributes that 
Alfred B. Kittredge enjoyed in a marked de- 
gree. For to those who knew him, his won- 
derful personality gave evidence that there 
was a man indeed, where one could 'wear 
him' in the 'heart of heart.' 

"Senator Kittredge was in a wonderful 
degree, a self-contained man. No matter 
how severe the criticism ; no matter how ab- 
solutely unjust the conduct of any man might 
be against him, he rarely— if ever— referred 
to it among his intimate friends, and if they 
should broach the subject he would at onca 
dismiss it as unworthy of consideration. 



220 BIOGRAPHY OF 

'That the onslaught did sink deep into 
his nature is more than probable; but with 
rare self-control he gave no surface indica- 
tion that the shaft had found lodgment. 

"He was never known to retaliate in 
kind, and never sought revenge ; but with a 
spirit of toleration, as magnanimous as un- 
usual, passed it by, and showed no sign of 
resentment. 

"That he was one of the limited circle of 
really great men of our state, and times, is 
self-evident. 

"He was a natural born leader; and with 
rare ability and most wise counsel, he led the 
hosts of the republican party, to which he 
gave unyielding allegiance, through some 
most critical campaigns, and won victories 
where sure defeat seemed imminent. 

"When it came to his personal fortunes 
— politically — a higher duty than that of self- 
interest was always first in his regard ; and 
just such service undoubtedly cost him a re- 
election to the United States Senate. 

"As a friend and counsellor, he was as 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 221 



true as the lode-star, and he never betrayed 

a friend, or a trust. 

"In summing his life up, it again seems 

necessary to quote from Shakespeare, and 

with especial emphasis: 

" 'A combination and a form, indeed, 
Where every God did seem to set hiy 

seal, 
To give the world assurance of a Man/ 
"To a very large circle of friends his life 

was a benediction ; his death, a calamity. 

Geo. A. Silsby." 



IN THE NATION'S VALHALLA 
"The one thing that stood out in bole re- 
lief above all others in the career of Mr. 
Kittredge was his faithfulness to duty. When 
asked or told to deliver 'a message to Garcia' 
it was always done. 

"During the period of his service in the 
United States Senate I was appealed to in 
many cases by veterans of the civil war ask- 
ing aid in obtaining an increase of pension, 
which could come only through an act of 



222 BIOGRAPHY OF 

Congress. The request generally came from 
those who were worthy but who had been un- 
fortunate in an effort to provide for a rainy 
day. The work was a pleasant gratuity per- 
formed for those who saved the Union. Af- 
ter satisfying myself that their case was mer- 
itorious I gathered the necessary evidence to 
present to the Congressional Committee on 
Pensions and with a letter of explanation 
forwarded the same to Mr. Kittredge. In a 
brief note he would acknowledge receipt and 
the next we heard was a press dispatch to the 
effect that the private pension bill had been 
passed. There was no fuss and feathers 
about it — no interminable correspondence — 
the work was done. 

"The men who interpreted the constitu- 
tion, who planned and dug the Panama Canal, 
framed the Monroe Doctrine, fixed our foreign 
relations and helped to make the United 
States the one dynamic power of the world 
may count him in their company. In the 
Valhalla of the great men of the nation and 
especially of the Northwest, the pitiless and 
vhe impartial historian will inscribe the name 
>f Alfred Beard Kittredge.' 

J. W. Parmley." 



SENATOR KITTREDGE 223 



FRIEND, POLITICIAN, LAWYER. 

"To know Senator Kittredge, at heart, 
was to love him. Those who knew him best 
loved him most. And he, in turn, loved his 
fellowman. Well might any man be proud to 
say, 'He was may friend,' for his friendship 
was an unfailing asset. 

"As for his politics, he was firm in his 
convictions. It was hard — even for his multi- 
plied friends — to shake him loose from a 
course of action upon which he had decided, 
if he himself felt it to be right. 

"As a lawyer, he stood in the very front 
rank of his profession, with few, if any, 
equals, and no superiors, in the west. 

Lee Stover." 



THE DEAD EULOGIZES THE DEAD. 

Attorney William B. Sterling (deceased), 
of Huron, in closing his beautiful eulogy on 
James G. Blaine, at the time of the latter's 
death, in 1893, used the following language 



224 BIOGRAPHY OF 



which could never have been more appro- 
priate to James G. Blaine than it is to Alfred 
B. Kittredge ; hence, we close, by letting the 
DEAD eulogize the DEAD. Mr. Sterling 
said : 

"Sleep on, proud spirit, 'tis well thou art 
at rest; no more shall thy -royal pride be 
wounded by the shafts of envy and malice ; 
never again shall thy great heart be torn 
with the fierce and bitter contentions of the 
busy life thou hast lead ! Peace has come, at 
last, to thine indomitable and unconquerable 
spirit, which no obstacle could appall, no mis- 
fortune disturb, no defeat intimidate, no ca- 
lamity subdue. Ended are thy conflicts, thy 
triumphs and thy defeats. Silent the magic 
voice that never sounded a retreat, or uttered 
one complaint against the malignant fates 
that wrecked the hopes and ambitions of a 
life time. Into the shadows of the deep and 
insoluble mystery, thy heroic spirit has taken 
its flight, leaving as a rich legacy the heri- 
tage of a life well spent." 

THE END 




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